the rest of summer and a bittersweet goodbye

the last week of summer, I ran approximately 4.5 miles. Total. I know I was a'slackin, but whatevs. I'm at school now, so I think it would be silly to blog about working out since I'm super busy with work. Even though I'll still be working out.

So I'm signing off, it was a fun summer of being healthy. Hopefully I'll continue this habit during the school year.

-Katie

Monday 8/16 - K

2 miles
abs FOREVER


Only went two miles cause of my knee, but I definitely made up for it in the ab department. An hour and a half...whew. My personal trainer friend went through some different things with me, and they were insane. I felt super inadequate because I looked ridiculous and didn't even do most of the stuff right. Here are some of the things that I put myself through:

75 leg lifts
~70 knee raises
100 crunches
160 side crunches (80 on each side)
30 more leg lifts
45 seconds of flutter kicks
pulling down 70 lbs from this machine and bending over to my knees 3 sets of 30 reps
side planks 3 sets of 1 minute on each side
circles with legs extended- 10 in each direction
hanging from a bar doing knee raises 3 sets of 10 reps
hanging from a bar doing side knee raises 3 sets of 10 reps/side
leg lifts with 6 lb weight strapped to my ankles 3 sets of 10
3 sets of 30 reps on this ab machine

I feel like I got hit by a bus.

Wednesday 8/10 - K

2.43 miles
arm machines/free weights
ab workout


Original plan was to run 6 mi, but at about mile 0.5 my knees started giving me sass and forced me to cut the run short :( Dumb.

Monday 8/8 - K

7 miles
62 minutes


7 miles is a long way to run...

During the run, as I was getting a drink of water, the cap of my bottle fell out of my hands. It then proceeded to shoot off the back of the treadmill. I wasn't about to stop running. I was going at a pretty nice clip and was already 5 miles into the run. Luckily for me, one of my coworkers was personally training a client beside of me, so she stepped down and got the cap for me. It was so scary yet honorable. She is so nice, but I'm always so scared she'll punch me in the face...she also wanted to know if I wanted to run a 5k with her in September, but I had to decline because I'll be at school. She'd probably be at the finish line laughing at my 25 minutes when she finished ten minutes ago, just waiting to punch me in the face. Maybe.

July 29-August 5 - K

No, I'm not lazy, I was AT THE BEACH!!!!

I still ran.

Body pump -Friday
Marisa came with me! We almost died.

5 miles - Monday
I saw two horseshoe crabs. It was so hot running on the beach, especially in South Carolina. The humidity was awful, but I LOVED IT!!!!!! The ocean breeze was fantastic and I really wish I could run at home with that kind of breeze AND view.


3 miles - Tuesday
Marisa came with me (what?)! We called it our Sun Run since we got up early to watch the sunrise. It reminded me of The Office's Fun Run when they were running to cure rabies. After we finished running, we saw some deer chillin on the dunes. It was weird, cause deer are usually in the forest, but whatevs. I guess they need vacation too.


3 miles - Wednesday
I was supposed to go 6, but I only had 30 minutes before dinner and we had plans after dinner.

I failed to run my 7 miles on Friday, but there was a severe heat advisory so I figured it would be best if I just relaxed on my vacation. I'll be back at it tomorrow, though! Can't wait :)

Wednesday 7/27 - K

3.01 mi
29:11
free weights and some machines
Mae's ab workout


Maggie worked out with me, but she was late. The stinker. We felt really silly because we were doing our ab workout on top of the cushion table thing, but it's ok. Nothing too exciting happened.

Monday 7/25 - K

5.01 mi
43:something
lots of machines


I put my laptop in the bonus room because I'm using it when I paint, so idk the specifics of my run time, but whatever. You'll just have to deal. It was a good run, I didn't walk at all which is pretty awesome since I wanted to. I mean I REALLY wanted to. So suck it, laziness. I defeated you.

I used the leg press machine, but whoever used it before me didn't put away the huge circle plates. So I had to lift 6 45lb circle weights! Except this one guy with big muscles saw how pathetic I was and asked me if I needed help. I squeaked out a "yes" in the smallest voice I have ever used in my life, cause I felt so small. When I was finished, I went to take off the weights, but this other guy with bigger muscles said I could leave them on. I squeaked an "ok thanks" in an even smaller voice, and subtly speed-walked away.

Then, I did crunches on this cushion table which was nice on my back. It was weird because it was so elevated and people could see me, but I guess it was better than going back to the big boy weight area.

Friday 7/22 - K

Body Pump
6.02 mi
58:32


During Body Pump, lower back pains started up. This is not cool, but at the same time it gave me an excuse not to do the shoulders part of the work out. My mom told me I should go ask one of the personal trainers, Rose, if she knew any stretches that would help. I was so scared because Rose is this super intense Marine and I was scared that she would tell me to suck it up and punch me in the face. When I told this to my mother, she told me that it was completely possible...way to boost my confidence. I sucked it up and asked her, and she was very nice. Then I ran 6 miles.

While I was running, the baseball team started filtering in. They all looked at me awkwardly. I started out the run at a slow pace since my back was hurting, but then I picked up speed because I wanted to finish the 6 mi before my mom finished her Zumba class (that I still refuse to go to).

After I ran, I made myself a smoothie. Yay! It's almost like I can work the front counter! Almost.

Wednesday 7/20 - K

5.04 mi
45:36


I really really really wanted to walk the last mile, but I was running with a coworker and didn't want to seem like a wimp. Even though his arm muscles were probably 17x the mass of my arm muscles. Whatever.

Tuesday 7/19 - K

3.14 mi
25:17
free weights and machines


Had to work out after I got off of work tonight, so I didn't get home until 9. But it's ok, I got my fastest 5k time ever! I'm going to collapse any second now so I'm going to bed. Yay!

Monday 7/18 - K

5.02 mi
46:53
Mae's ab workout
arm machines/free weights


Today's run was somewhat of a fail (I didn't run the whole time) because I ate too much ice cream the past few days: two whole tubs of Ben & Jerry's, two small cups of Sweet Frog froyo, and the bottom of another gallon of ice cream. All within four days. Whatever. I love ice cream/frozen yogurt, so it was all worth it (aside from the tummy ache this morning, but even then...).

Also, I want to thank the gym for having ESPN on the tv's to ruin the Women's World Cup Final results for me. Jerk. At least they were giving out free sample smoothies.

Friday 7/15 - K

6 miles
56:39


I couldn't find my GPS so I was late getting to the gym. I almost didn't finish my run by the time I was supposed to work, but I made it! And the baseball team was there working out, but none of them were drop dead hotties. Oh wellz. Going to the lake now! YAY!!!

Wednesday 7/13 - K

4.02 mi
34:11
crunches, free weights, and machines


Today, I wasn't in a very good mood. I was actually in a very bad mood. It's crazy how working out can turn your frown upside down! Corny, but I'm going with it. I was running and in the best mood ever! My body is screaming at me now, but oh well! I don't have to go to any work tomorrow, so I get to sleep in, yay! And yay for the majority of my sentences ending in exclamation points!

Tuesday 7/12 - K

2.02 mi
15:38
machines


Yay for running my fastest mile ever (or at least since March since I've had my Nike+)! I clocked in that sucker at 7:29. Not too shabby, although I'm pretty sure if I go all out and only run one mile, I can have my time under 7 minutes. Maybe.

I went to the gym around 12:15 this afternoon, so hardly anyone was there. It stunk because I couldn't people watch, but oh wellz. I was jammin to my Super Mash Bros, so it was all good. My legs are starting to get sore from yesterday, which stinks cause tomorrow I'm supposed to do 4 mi and Friday I'm supposed to run 6...eek. We'll see how it goes. Tomorrow I can't go to the gym until after 5, hopefully I'll see some interesting folk then (minus stalkers).

I kind of wish my high school cross country coach would read this, or at least know that I'm actually running now that I have no competitive reason to. He'd be so proud.

Tuesday 7/12 -I

So You Think You Can Dance workout video

I probably won't be posting (or exercising) a lot for the next month, because I've started my internship with UrbanPromise in Wilmington, Delaware and I don't have a lot of time or internet access. But today I did this workout video (starring contestants of my favorite tv show), and it was really fun.

It was a coincidence, because I actually own this workout DVD and brought it to Wilmington, but the one we used was actually another of the intern's, who got it from the library. It was the exact same one I had though!

Even though I won't have a lot of time to work out, I'll still be really active because I'll be working at camp all day, running around with the kids and stuff. Also, there's no AC in the intern houses, so I feel like I lose a pound of sweat every day!

Monday 7/11 - K

5.01 mi
46:46
Ab work
some machines
free weights


Back to running after 6 days...I'm so embarrassed :( At least my excuse is legitimate, I was sick. I failed at 9 miles of my training, though, which bumped me from 9,200ish place back to 9,400ish place on my 211 miles in 2011 challenge. It's ok, I'm back to 9,200ish place now. AND I set a personal record (according Tiger Woods) for my mile time! If Nike.com would ever load, I could post it. But no, it refuses.

Anyways, I was totally workout-stalked today. As I was getting my sweat on, not one, but TWO GUYS GOT ON TREADMILLS ON EITHER SIDE OF ME. Not cool (but kind of). There were clearly at least five open treadmills away from me, so I know it wasn't just coincidence. To make it even more creepy, when I finished my run and went to the back to do my ab workout, one of the guys who ran next to me got like 3 yards away from me and started doing pushups?! And THEN, when I went to the free weights to do some bicep curls, he followed me over there and started doing bicep curls of his own (except he used the 45 lb bar with huge plates on either side, I just used 8 lb dumbbells. I felt so small). I just closed my eyes and listened to some Super Mash Bros.

Shout out to my girl, Emily, for sending me that music. I was seconds away from breaking out into dance multiple times during my workout. Maybe if I did that then that guy wouldn't have followed me around...

7/6 -I (catch up)

I haven't blogged about the last couple of workouts I've done, so I'll just write a little bit about each of them.

Saturday 7/2
Ballroom dancing!
I finally got to dance again, which was great since I haven't since the semester ended. I went to a dance near DC with other people from the W&M ballroom club. It was great. And I decided it counts as a workout because I'd forgotten how tiring (yet still really fun) ballroom can be, especially the faster dances like the cha cha. And especially since you're wearing heels.

Tuesday 7/5
Yoga!
There's a yoga studio in the same building that we're staying in, and they were offering a free class, so my mom and I went to it. It was fun, and surprisingly hard. I thought it would be easy for me since I was the youngest person there, and I've done yoga before, but I realized that since I've only done yoga by myself before, this was different because I didn't get to drop a pose after I got tired, I had to hold it until the instructor said we were done. But it made me want to go to yoga classes at the rec once I get back to school.

Wednesday 7/6
Gym
I planned to watch the end of So You Think You Can Dance while on the elliptical, but by the time I got down to the gym the show was almost over, so after that I started to watch Love in the Wild. I am so hooked. Most reality shows about love are pretty dumb (I mean, this one is too), but this show is fascinating to me because of two things:
The first is the adventure aspect. The premise is that the contestants are put out in the wild, paired up, and sent on adventures. They have to compete against the other couples. I love adventuring, and they do cool stuff like climb over rope bridges hundreds of feet high, or make rafts and pull themselves across rivers with ropes.
The second thing that's so interesting about this show is the social psychology aspect of it (psych major here). The way that the show is set up basically makes it a giant, complicated version of the Prisoner's Dilemma. At the end of every episode two people are eliminated. First everyone has the choice of whether to stay with their partner, or switch. But if they ask to switch and the new person they pick rejects them, then the switcher is in danger of being eliminated. Watching it made me want to learn more about Game Theory so I could map out the contestants' possibilities and choices.

Tuesday 7/5 - K

2.1 mi
19:47
Ab workout


It was so hot this morning...at 8:30 we were already at 91% humidity. I almost didn't run, but since it was only scheduled to be a 2 mi run, I sucked it up and went anyways.

I saw lots of people out doing yard work, which was crazy cause it was so hot. My calves were burning the last mile, but I pushed through like a trooper.

During ab time, my mom started talking to me. Not cool. But whatever.

It's Two-job Tuesday, meaning I'm not going to be home from 11 a.m. until after 8 p.m. Bring it on.

PS: Happy Birthday ISABEL!!!!

Monday 7/4 - K

4.04 mile walk with mommy!


Dinner tonight was delayed because of a huge thunder storm (dad didn't want to be using a metal grill while it was lightning-ing outside), so there was no way I was going to run right after steak (hm, this seems like a trend...). That's ok, mommy said she'd walk with me! We saw a double rainbow all the way across the sky! So intense...anyways, it was pretty sweet. We also saw two ladies in their matching pink shirts going for a walk. We totally beat them, I was so proud of us.

When we got back, we watched last Thursday's episode of So You Think You Can Dance. It was SO GOOD AND HOLY MOLY YOU NEED TO WATCH IT THIS GUY IS SO STRONG I WANT TO BE LIKE HIM IN STRENGTH ONE DAY! Ok maybe not that strong, but wow. Check it out!

Friday 7/1 -I

5 k
30 something minutes
Mae's ab workout

This was a special workout, because Katie and I were finally reunited and got to work out TOGETHER after blogging about our workouts seperately for the past month! It was awesome to get to run with her. I also learned that she is way more in shape than I am! We were supposed to run five miles, but we ended up doing 5 kilometers instead because we (mostly me) were exhausted.

We were sleeping over at our friend Marisa's house, and we got up early(er than her) to go running. Even though it was only about 9 am it was already really hot! We ran down her road on the sidewalk until it ended and then turned around and ran back. I got to listen to Katie rapping, and I tried to beatbox while running, but it was very difficult and I just ended up spitting a lot... plus I can't even beat box standing still.

About halfway back we stopped at what we though was a water faucet we could drink from, but it turned out to be really old and rusty and broken. So instead we lay down in the grass to do Mae's ab workout (which is way more intense than my move-in workout I usually do!). We got some funny looks (and some honks) from people driving by.

When we got back to Marisa's house, we realized we were locked out! We threw mulch at her window until she came down and let us in. Then we had bacon for breakfast. It was a great morning.

Friday 7/1 - K

3.11 mi
32:13
Mae's Ab workout
Walked all around DC


Even though the run was supposed to be 5 miles, it was ok because Isabel was with me and of course when you talk you obviously can't run very fast/it was pretty hot and we had lots to do and ... yeah.

The run wasn't very eventful, but we were honked at quite a few times, including when we were laying on the ground doing synchronized crunches. Cause girls drenched in sweat are attractive, I guess.

We saw this water spout, and decided on the way back we'd stop to get a drink since it was so hot out. When we got to the thing, it was all rusted over and we couldn't figure out where the handle was. I decided it was either a. there for decoration or b. too old to work. Either way, we were disappointed.

This super vicious dog barked at us but luckily it was restrained by a 10 ft. high fence.

We had to go to the bathroom so badly that we almost stopped at this building across the street from where we were running. We didn't, so that's another reason why we ended the run early.

When we got back to Marisa's house (where we were staying!), we were locked out. Oops. Everyone in the house was still asleep, so we obviously couldn't ring the doorbell. We started throwing mulch at Marisa's window. Luckily for us, she heard it and let us in. I'm not sure what we would have done if she didn't hear us, probably pass out or die of heat exhaustion.

Later that day, we went into DC and walked all around. We even got free sun screen at the first aid tent (ok that has nothing to do with working out, but whatever it was sweet). I was so proud of Marisa for keeping up with us and crossing the street in 17 seconds, avoiding being hit by oncoming traffic. We gave her a hard time since she didn't go running with us, but she was a trooper and played along.

Yay together working out and friendship!

Wednesday 6/29 - K

4.02 mi
35:07
Mae's Ab Workout
Arm machines
Delts machine


My friend's mom tried to get me to do Zumba with her, but I was like heck no. I don't do Zumba. Then, this other lady, who I think that I know or knew at one point and I forgot her name, chimed in and told me that I would get a better workout doing the dance class. HA. She obviously didn't know how intense I am.

During my run, I listened to Look At Me Now twice in a row. One part of my summer goal is to learn that rap. I have the first section down, the first sentence of the next section and random other parts, and the beginning of the Lil Wayne part. Good thing I have two more months left...

Maggie and I did the ab portion of the workout near the big boy weight section. It was so scary, but we managed to survive (both the intense workout and the stares of sketchy guys with big muscles).

I'm going to NoVA tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be able to run there with...guess who...ISABEL!!!! YAY! After a month of blogging with her about our separate workouts, we will FINALLY GET TO TALK ABOUT WORKING OUT TOGETHER! Two perspectives on the same run...this should be good!

Wednesday 6/29 - I

40 minutes on treadmill
Move-in Workout
Stairs

This was the first time I'd ever run on a treadmill. Normally I'm against the idea of running inside when I could be running outside. But tonight all the elliptical machines were being used, so I used a treadmill. At first it felt kinda weird, and I was paranoid that I would forget I was on a treadmill, stop, and shoot off the end. But it was fine. It felt funny walking on the ground after I got off though.

I watched So You Think You Can Dance while I was on the treadmill. I LOVE that show! It always inspires me to want to dance. Now I can't wait to get back to ballroom and salsa club at school, and take the Modern I class I'm registered for. So You Think You Can Dance is awesome because it has basically every style of dance. I just found out that my lovely co-blogger Katie also watched it tonight!

Tuesday 6/28 - I

30 minutes on the elliptical
ran up the stairs to our 7th floor room

workout today was really light because I'm so sore from yesterday! Also, we got some vaccines and blood tests today so my arms were sore from those as well. And did I mention that I played Xbox Kinect yesterday with my brother and cousin? I pwned my brother at Kinect Boxing, but now my shoulder really hurts.. oh well

Running on the elliptical machine was boring until I finally found an interesting channel to watch- first I watched America's Got Talent (this guys is HILARIOUS). Then I watched the beginning of the finale of The Voice, but right when they were about to actually start singing my time was up so I left.

Monday 6/27 - I - Back in America!

15 minutes climbing
15 minutes eliptical
20 minutes arm/core machines
Move-in workout
Ran up the stairs (to 7th floor, twice)

I had a really active day today! We're staying in a hotel/temporary apartment place in NoVA now, and it has a really nice gym. Because of jet-lag, I woke up really early. So I went to the gym after breakfast. The most exciting thing in the gym is the "TreadWall." It's a continuous climbing wall that you can keep going on forever, like a vertical treadmill. Here's a picture (not of me, just from google):
It's fun, but extremely tiring. It feels like you're continuously doing pull-ups while at the same time running and doing crunches and trying to balance on something. I actually couldn't do it for more than a minute at a time without hopping off for a second to rest. It automatically stops if you get to the bottom or get off.

Using the other gym equipment was also fun- there are personal TV screens on all the elipticals. Most of the channels were boring daytime TV, but I found one sports channel that was in German (I watched it for the German, not the sports).

Afterward, I took the stairs instead of the elevator back to our rooms on the 7th floor. I took the stairs one other time today, but all the other times I took the elevator. I'm going to try to take the stairs more though.

Monday 6/27 - K

4.01 mi
35:42
Arms and back machines


Maggie texted me last night, asking if I wanted to go to the gym. I was planning on going anyways, so I was like ok yeah sure. She then realized she had to be at her freshman orientation in the evening, and I had a dentist appointment at 10, so we decided to go to the gym at 8. Yikes.

I woke up this morning to my alarm (I was dreaming that my clock said 7:23, which was three minutes away from alarm time. I thought to myself, Katie don't go back to sleep you'll just have to get up soon anyways, but of course I did, even though it was in my dream) at 7:21 (the clock I look at is 5 minutes fast vs. my cell phone alarm, that's probably information you didn't really want to know but whatever). I texted Maggie to make sure she was up, cause if she wasn't, there was no way I was going to get up. She texted back at ten til 8. Oops. Oh well, I still made it to her house 5 minutes late.

We ran 4 miles. At mile .3, I think I accidentally hit the stop button because all of a sudden, the treadmill slowed to almost a complete stop. I was like, what the heck treadmill. The people around me looked at me like I was crazy, but oh well. It wasn't my fault.

That 35 minutes was probably the longest 35 minutes of my life. I was watching Good Morning America, and they were talking about 4th of July sales and interviewing Jennifer Aniston. I was not interested, so that's probably why the run dragged on for so long.

I think something in my body has changed. I used to NEVER sweat, but now I do all the time. It's really gross, but whatever. I'm at the gym. You're supposed to sweat at the gym. The only problem with today, however, was that I had a dentist appointment at 10. We left the gym at 9:30, which gave me no time to go home and change clothes, so I had to go to the dentist all stinky and disgusting.

Oh well, they wear masks anyways.

Saturday 6/25 -I

Three-and-a-half hours of wandering around Switzerland
(not sure if this really counts as a work out...but oh well)

It was my last day in Switzerland, and I had time to kill in the evening before I had to meet my family and another family at a restaurant in town for dinner. So I decided to go shopping for Swiss souvenirs to bring back to my friends in the US. I had forgotten, however, that in Switzerland everything closes early on Saturdays, so none of the shops I wanted to go to were open. So instead of shopping I just wandered around my little town of Versoix, took the train into Geneva, and wandered around there. It wasn't really a workout but I felt like I walked really far, and my feet hurt by the end of it (I was wearing sandals). I decided to use mapmyrun.com to map out my excursion. I made two maps- on for the part of my walk in my neighborhood and one for the part in Geneva.

Versoix:
http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/39000792/ (note- if you click on Map Options and then Satellite and then zoom in a little it'll be more interesting because you can actually see what my neighborhood looks like)
Geneva:http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/39003784/

Click on the Notes tab to see my notes about each letter marker I put down. I'll also put them here in case you were too lazy to click on the link to the map:

Versoix:

Walked through my highschool

Realized store #1 was closed

Realized store #2 was closed

Realized every store in Switzerland closes early on Saturday

Took the train into Geneva (about 15 minutes)

Geneva:

Bought a pastry at one of the many bakeries in the train station

Bought an ice cream cone. It was ridiculously expensive (3.70 francs for a single scoop?? that's over 4 dollars!) but I had to use up all my Swiss money anyway.

Avoided a man wearing a corset who was handing out flyers

Nostalgic "this is where I graduated!" moment

Watched some of an intense beach volleyball tournament

Took a boat across the lake (they are part of the public transportation and you use the same ticket that you use to take the train or bus)

Ran into two of my coworkers sitting outside Starbucks. It was nice to get to say goodbye to them.

Met my family at the restaurant. It was the most (stereo)typically Swiss place ever- complete with fondue, yodeling, cowbells, and alpenhorns

Ok so the website says I only walked for 5 miles - it felt like more. Still, even if it wasn't much exercise, and even though I didn't get to buy souvenirs (I got some at the airport the next day) it was a nice way to say goodbye to Switzerland.

Friday 6/24 -K

5.05 miles
48:43
Arms and back machines


I woke up this morning at 8, prepared to run in the coolness of the morning hours. I checked the weather, 69 F. Score. 96% humidity. I was like...no way I'm going back to bed. So I did. But, since I made this goal on Nike.com and had to run 5 miles today, I couldn't wimp out. So I just ran at the gym. And then did some muscle workouts. Let me tell you what, I sweated so much I'm sure the guy in the big boy weight room who kept looking at me thought I looked real cute with sweat dripping off of my nose.

I'm going to the lake in like 4 minutes, yay!

Thursday 6/22 -I

30 Minutes
Move-in Workout x2

Yesterday my family moved out of our house into a hotel for our last couple days in Switzerland. The hotel is only about half a mile away from our house though, so I decided to run through our compound and to our house, even though I couldn't go in. This was kind of my goodbye to our house. I sat in our compound by the lake for a long time, thinking about my past couple years living here. I'm really sad to leave. I love living here, and it was so beautiful. But today I met two more people who are in love with Taiwan (it seems like half the people I've met this summer have some connection to Taiwan, and all of those people love it). So I'm getting more and more excited to go there, even though I don't actually get to join my family there until winter break.

When I got back to the hotel I did my ab/arms workout. I've been gradually building the number of reps I do in each set over the past month (for example, I started with a pathetic 3 pushups haha, and now I'm up to 20). And I decided that I should now do each of the sets(crunches/pushups/plank/side crunches/backward push ups) twice, rather than doing more reps in each set.

Wednesday 6/22 - K

3.02 miles
30:03
Mae's ab workout


So I decided to start this coaching program on Nike.com. I'm training for a 10 K race, even though I'm not signed up for one. Whatevs. It's a way to keep me on track with my running! I emailed the training schedule to my friend, Emily, so hopefully she'll do it too!

Interesting things on my run:

• It was actually kind of cold (ok not cold, but compared to the past few days it was!) when I started my run at about 9 this morning, but towards the end, I almost died of heat stroke. Actually it was more like I almost drowned in my own sweat (ew). The humidity was TERRIBLE.
• On my training schedule, there are a few days for me to run on a hilly route. My route is normally quite hilly, so I decided to run one of the flat cul de sacs (I had to look up how to spell that word...I never would have guessed it was three) in my hood like eight times. It was only about a tenth of a mile long, but there were two smushed frogs on either end. It reminded me of 7th grade bio/10th grade bio/Zoology lab in college when we dissected frogs. Quite pleasant.
• No wild animal chases! A bug flew into my leg, but that was about as crazy as it got.

Interesting things during my ab workout:

• I did the workout in the frog (finished room over garage) - no dogs to bite my face, and no dog hair to give me a fur coat!

Tuesday 6/21 - I

45 minutes

Yesterday I went running with my friend Sabrina. I went to highschool with her, and she lives 2 minutes away from me. It was great to go running with her again; last summer we went running together almost every day.

We ran along the little creek that runs through our town, and ended up at a big field. Sometimes the field is completely filled with purple flowers, and it's really pretty. Today it was just green, but Sabrina brought her camera because she plans to take a picture every time she runs there, so we can see how it gets more and more purple.

We were both exhausted by the end of the run, but time always goes by so much more quickly when you're running with a partner. We sat down to take a break for a minute in the middle, but besides that, we made each other keep going when one of us (usually me...) wanted to walk.

Monday 6/20 -K

3.13 mi
27:55


Dinner was somewhat late today, so I had to do my speedy digestion that doesn't work. It was getting dark when I began my run, so my mindset was that of "I need to hurry up this run so I'm not out after dark and get kidnapped" I was racing the sunset. I totally won.

Nothing too interesting happened today. I prayed hardcore that the poof dogs wouldn't be outside to attack me, along with the usual no-killer-bug-prayer. They were both answered!

I did see a lot of fireflies, which was kind of cool yet creepy because fireflies = night time, night time = dark time, dark time = kidnapping time; therefore, fireflies = kidnapping time. But they were still pretty.

Sunday 6/19 -K

3.13 mi
29:40


Since my run today was at 4 in the afternoon, it was pretty stinkin' hot. I figured since there was a storm coming (that never came...), it would be cool at this time of day. Nope.

Interesting things on my run:

• I had to go out of my way in order to avoid the dead bird in the middle of the road. I didn't want the bugs to get near me or sting me or kill me.
• I ran my normal route backwards, which I hated because that left me all the crazy hills for the end...never again, Katie.
• These two poof dogs chased me! I literally had to stop running because they were barking at me and wouldn't let me run past their house. I thought about how badly it would hurt if either of them bit me. Not too much because their mouths were about the size of a golf ball, but still. I could have contracted rabies. I tried to throw a stick to distract them, but that only made them run away for a few seconds. They came back, vicious as ever. I was so frustrated because I was in the last stretch of my run. I started yelling at them, hoping their owners would hear me, come out, and call them inside. No dice. When I finally made it past their house (after a good 8 minutes), they were still hot on my tail (trail?). I ran backwards in order to be prepared to punt them away if either of them went after my ankles. Luckily for them, that did not happen.
• When I got back to my house, I was only on mile 3.06, and I wanted to go at least 5k (3.1 mi). I felt rather silly running back in forth in front of my house until I reached my goal. Whatever, no cars passed me so it was nbd.

After my runs, I usually drink like forty glasses of water and eat a fudge graham protein bar. The things are SO FREAKING GOOD I could eat them at every meal. And by runs I mean running...not the other thing :P

Saturday 6/18 -I

2 hours of hiking!

I didn't go running today, but I think the hike I went on definitely counts as exercise- my legs are really sore right now (not as sore as it sounds like Katie's are though!) I went on the hike with my friend and his brother, and they are intense hikers. The hike was supposed to take three hours but we finished it in two because we were going so fast. I struggled to keep up, but it was still a lot of fun.

The place we went was called La Dôle, which is in the Swiss Jura mountain range. We took a train (several, actually) to get there, which took about an hour. We saw lots of cows and some ski lifts (not running, of course). The hike was really steep and slippery, and our goal was a big meteorological tower thing at the top of La Dôle. We didn't take any pictures ourselves, but it looks like this:

The view from there usually looks like this:
But it was really foggy when we got to the top so the view looked more like this:After we hiked back down, our train wasn't going to come for an hour, so we decided to try to hitchhike to another train station. None of us had ever hitchhiked before, so we didn't know whether it would work. My friend's brother tried to convince us that we needed a "hitchhiking license" to hitchhike in Switzerland (False! I looked it up when I got home).

We stood on the side of the little country road and stuck our thumbs out whenever a car drove by. In the next ten minutes, about ten cars passed us without stopping, although one old man with a full car made an apologetic gesture. Then a car finally stopped for us! A French man and a little kid were in the car, and he agreed to drive us to St. Cergue- another train station.

It was awkwardly silent in the car. The radio was playing "Grenade," but I stopped myself from singing along. I would have talked to the driver but I wasn't confident enough in my French. I did talk in French to the kid though- his name was Morgan and he was two years old. I'm glad my French skills are at least up to two-year-old level!

We got out of the car about 10 minutes later, thanked the man, and walked away proudly. Then we looked at the train schedule and realized that the next train was the same train that we would have gotten on from the station we were originally at. Still, we were thrilled that we had successfully hitchhiked for the first time.

Friday 6/17 -K

2.07 mi
21:05


I am so sore from yesterday's gym adventure that I had to cut my run short. My goal was to do at least 5k, but at mile 1.6 my quads started burning. They were on FIRE. I decided I'd just run back home. No dice. Quads were burning so much that I had to stop running (ok when this car drove by I totally pretended I was running the whole time...lolz) and walk the rest of the way home. With each step, the flame soared throughout my body. I'm lucky to have made it home.

When I went up to my room, I literally had to crawl up the stairs. My body is NOT happy with me for being crazy to it the past week, but whatevs. I set a goal at Nike.com to run 12 times in 4 weeks, and I'm 3 runs behind my pace because of that dang wart impeding my progress.

I just sneezed twice and about died both times. Hopefully I'll be able to walk tomorrow?

Friday 6/17 - I

DDR for an hour and a half!

It was rainy again, so I played Dance Dance Revolution instead of going running. I jokingly asked my dad if he wanted to play, and to my surprise he said yes! He wasn't very good at it, but I think he enjoyed it. He played on the Beginner level while I was playing on Standard or Heavy.

Playing with my dad was pretty fun (and very funny, he looked really silly), except when restart the game in the middle of songs like 3 times, because
1. he wanted to reposition the TV so we could be farther away from the screen
2. we had to untangle our cords and switch mats because he was confused that he was on the left mat but his character was on the right of the screen
3. he tried to push the playstation back away from the edge of the table but accidentally hit the eject button

But after that it was fine. I wonder when I go to Taiwan there will be DDR as an arcade game, like at malls and stuff... and I also have this image in my mind (probably from a movie or something) of like, a giant club/arcade dedicated to DDR... oh ok I remembered the movie- it was a stupid Lindsay Lohan movie and all I remember is this scene: (skip to 4:30) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVNe4Eoph74.

Wednesday 6/16 -K

Gym for an hour...ish?


My friend Aaron and I went to the gym today. I was really worried that he'd think I was a total pansy, but it turned out ok. I benched! Ok it was only the bar and only three times, but I could have done more! Maybe... Aaron assured me that he didn't think I was a wimp, but I think he was just saying that because I'm a girl and made him look like he was lifting way more. Oh well.

I'll try to explain what all I did:

• 180 lbs on this leg squat lay down machine. I'm not sure what it's called, but you laid down on this padded thing and pushed up a bunch of weights with your legs. Wow that was a horrible description...whatevs
• I couldn't do the calf machine because the length from my knee to my feet was too short to fit :(
• Benched the bar three times! All time personal record - I beat 1 from previous benching experiences!
• I lost count of how many crunches on the inclined bench I did, but for some of them I held a 25 lb weight. It sounds impressive, but it's probably really not. The weight got dirt on my shirt. Gross.
• Some machine where you sit down and make your arms spread out. You grab this bar thing and pull them together. I think there was about 50 lbs on it? Maybe not, maybe like 30? 25? I forget.
• Hm I'm not sure how to describe this one. Well, I rested my forearms on this padded arm rest and pulled my knees up to my chest while just dangling there. Lots of times.
• Triceps pull downs w/ 30 lbs resistance
• Some ab swivel machine w/ 50 lbs resistance

Yeah those were terrible explanations, but oh well. At least I was working out.

Wednesday 6/16 -I Went to the Gym!

20 minutes on the eliptical
lots of random weight machines I don't know the names of

On Wednesday I went to the gym at work with some of my coworkers. They go there all the time, but I barely ever go because I don't like working out inside that much. And I don't really know how to use most of the machines, but my friends showed me.

The reason I actually went was because we were going to do this exercise video that they have there from this series called Yoga Booty Ballet. It's this really fun (and kinda silly)exercise/dance thing. One time at school during exams I was studying in a classroom and I went to fill up my water bottle, and I saw a group of people in the hallway dancing in front of a laptop. I asked them what they were doing, and they were watching Yoga Booty Ballet on youtube and dancing along. It was their study break. So I joined them for like 5 minutes, and it was really fun.
At the gym yesterday though we couldn't get the TV to work, so we couldn't do Yoga Booty Ballet. I was disappointed. Hopefully we'll get it to work another time!

Wednesday 6/15 -K

2.06 mi
17:44
Ab workout


Even though today's run was a bit weenie compared to last time, it was nonetheless intense. I had planned on trying to make this one a faster run, but it was kind of humid and I had just eaten dinner. Excuses, excuses. Nothing really interesting happened on my run today, but that may have to do with the fact that I avoided the place where I encountered the scary bug from Monday's run.

Something interesting from today happened, though. I saw the creepy Santa in the van guy when I was driving home from work. He was wearing neon orange, not typical Santa attire. You can't be perfect all the time.

Tuesday 6/14 -K

Bicep curls
Triceps thing


I decided my legs needed a break from the long run yesterday. I was going to go to the gym with a friend, but he cancelled on me. I took a nap instead. Oops! After dinner, though, I did some bicep curls and this triceps thing. Very minimal, but I was listening to this song during the bicep part. It's so adorable !!

Tuesday 6/14 -I

15 minutes
Move-in Workout

Today my run was really short, because I wanted to get back before it got dark. I wish I had been able to run for longer- I had a lot of pent up energy after not going running all weekend! (And it was a three day weekend here in Switzerland because of Whit Monday) I didn't go running over the weekend because I was busy packing! The movers came today to pack up our stuff. So the house is full of boxes and bubblewrap right now. They're coming back tomorrow to finish up.

Interesting things on my run:

• this was the first run this summer where I didn't stop or walk at all
• I saw 4 or 5 little bats swooping above me on my way home
• my running shoes were already packed up (since I have different running shoes here and back at school), so I had to run in my adidas, which aren't the best for running. But it was ok.
• I ran a loop around my highschool. It's funny that it takes me 15 minutes to get there, around, and back when I'm running. When I used to walk to school it would take me 15 minutes just to walk there!
  

Monday 6/13 -K

6.67 miles
65:43


I haven't gotten my run on in SO LONG (see why here). This was probably the most stressful run ever.

Interesting things on my run:

• I saw a friend I've known since middle school, so I paused my run at about mile one and a half. I only chatted for about two minutes, because I had to run!
• I ran through two sprinklers in people's yards.
• I got chased by a dog - forrealz this time. I kind of freaked out, but the owner assured me that the dog wouldn't bite me. I was skeptical, but I ran away without a scratch.
• By mile 5, I wasn't feeling so great. But I couldn't just puke in people's yards...so I didn't puke at all. 
• This giant bug chased me. It was so scary, I sprinted like a madwoman for a quarter of a mile + and prayed hardcore that the bug would stop chasing me. It bumped into my leg once, and I thought it was going to bite me.  I was so terrified because I thought I was going to die, and angry because I used up so much energy running away from it. I'm not sure what it was, but it was so large it must have been deadly and wanted to kill me.
• To top it all off, I pulled a tick off of my socks. So gross.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to walk tomorrow...time will tell, but I think I already know the answer since I can barely move now.

Friday 6/10 - I

1 hour
5.5 miles
Move-in Workout

Today I decided to run in the opposite direction than I usually do. Consequently, I got lost in a forest. But it's ok, found my way back home eventually. I ran along a creek, through a forest, out of the forest, and on a road next to some fields. Then I passed a sign saying that I was entering Versoix. Versoix is the town I live in.

This run made me very appreciative of water in all forms, such as

a) Lakes- even when I had no idea where I was, I at least knew which direction Lake Geneva was in, so I knew that if I kept running that direction I would eventually hit the lake and then I could just follow that home, since I live right on the lake.

b) Rivers- for a lot of my run I was running along a little river (maybe more like a creek at some points) so I knew that if I got seriously lost I could always just get back to the river and follow it back upstream until I got to my starting point (I really didn't want to do that though, because I hate retracing my steps when I'm running, it feels like I'm undoing what I've accomplished..)

c) Fountains- I was really thirsty by the end of my run, and I was so happy that in Swiss towns (and lots of places in Europe) there are always cute little fountains that you can drink from.

They can look like this:


Or this:

Or this:

Wednesday 6/8 -K

3.14 mi
29:08
Ab workout


Yay! Back to running after a 4 day sabbatical! And I was smart this time and ran during the evening.

Interesting things on my run:

• These worker men were standing around this truck with their shirts off...I picked up my pace not to impress them, but to run away from them. They scared me.
• I almost got attacked by two sets of dogs. Thank goodness for invisible fences.
• This old man who looked like Santa honked his horn at me as he drove by in his minivan. I'm not sure if I knew him or he was just being creepy. I'm going to go with I knew him.
• This other old man was sitting in a rocking chair on his front porch with a fly swatter. Whatever floats his boat.
• A bug ran into my face.
• I tried to beat Nicki Minaj's rap part in 2012 going up a hill, but she finished rapping before I even got to the hill. If she wasn't such a cheater I would have won.
• This past week was the week when the driveway painters went on a rampage. It seemed like mostly everyone in my hood got their driveway painted, aka resealed. The fumes made me almost die, but I pushed through.
• Brown Dog licked off my sweat when I got back to the house. She's gross.

Interesting things during my ab workout:

• Yellow Dog came and licked me twice in the face. She knows when to stop. She also knows to not step on my face while I'm doing crunches.
• I hate planks, so I did various other crunch-like exercises.

Tuesday 6/8 DDR -I

DDR- 1 Hour

It's been rainy all week here in Geneva. There are pros and cons to this...
Cons:

• getting soaked on the way to the bus stop and back
• the flats I wore to work still being wet the next day
• can't see the usual spectacular view Mont Blanc off in the distance because of all the clouds/fog
• can't go running

Pros:

• my mom taking pity on me and my dad and driving us to work
• there was drought for months before this, so the plants are happy
• it's not as hot as it was before
• an excuse to play Dance Dance Revolution as my workout instead of going running!

I've already expressed my love for Dance Dance Revolution in a post last week, but let me reiterate: it's the best game ever. Today my brother wasn't playing with me (he chose to watch youtube videos instead. bad decision, I'd say), so I was playing in one player mode. This means I got to place the "Dance Master Mode!"

Dance Master Mode is where you play through challenge songs to unlock other songs. Each song has a different goal or obstacle, such as:
-beat the song but don't press any of the "down" arrows
-get a perfect streak of more than 100 steps without messing up
-the arrows disappear slightly before they hit the top of the screen, so you have to memorize them for a second
-the arrows are moving backwards
-double speed

Each of the little black boxes in the picture represents a song- they're blank now except for one, but when you beat a song the box lights up and draws lines to more boxes, which are new songs to unlock. I like playing this mode because it's a challenge and it even further distracts me from the fact that I'm exercising- I'm so focused on trying to get a 300 combo on Dynamite Rave.

Monday 6/6 -K

1 mile (while waiting for Body Pump to start - I didn't have my Nike+iPod thing so it didn't count toward my 211 miles in 2011 challenge on Nike.com :( )
Body Pump


Body Pump with Maggie!

Interesting things at Body Pump:

• I got a coupon for $1 off a large smoothie at the gym. Combine that with my employee discount...yeah cheap smoothie!
• The biceps song was the song that never ended...holy crap if I'm not ripped tomorrow I'm going to be mad.
• I was really disappointed with the ab workout. Maybe I should just do Mae's workout in addition to Body Pump.
• I almost died during shoulders...with the weenie weights...again...

Monday 6/6 -I

50 minutes
Move-in Workout

Today I went on my usual route to the sports center, around the track and back. Since this is what I almost always do, I decided to draw a map of it. It's not extremely accurate, and definitely not at all to scale (everything should be farther apart) but I just tried to include all my favorite parts of the route. These include: crossing the bridge over the creek, baaa-ing at the sheep, glancing nostalgically at my old highschool, and going down to the port at the end.

Sunday 6/5 -K

Swimming


My boss's son is a little crazy, but today I actually enjoyed his company. He's going to be in the 7th grade next year, and everyone knows how middle schoolers are. Just multiply that by 86.

I can't tell you how many laps we did, but I was exhausted by the time we were through.

He wanted to race me swimming, and when I won, he wanted a redo. This happened SO MANY TIMES (because I won every time...). But that's ok, I ate two ice creams today so it was worth it.

Sunday MORNING 6/5 - I

20 Minutes
Move-in workout

I did something I'd never done before, I got up early and went running in the morning!! Crazy. Well, it wasn't really that early- I woke up at 9:30 because I didn't have to be at church till 11. Still, normally on Sundays at home I'll roll out of bed at 10:30. But I knew I had to go running in the morning because I didn't go yesterday even though I really wanted to. Last night we went to an Indian Restaurant ( I LOVE Indian food), and we ate a lot and didn't get back till late. I felt bad because it had been a couple days since I'd gone running.

I thought about going on my mom's exercise bike at like midnight, when I finally felt like I'd digested dinner. But I wasn't sure how loud the bike was and I didn't want to wake everyone up, including our German house-guests who were flying out the next day.

So that's why I went running in the morning. It was a strange feeling, since normally I go running at 8 or 9 pm. It was surprisingly hot at 9:30. There was also a surprising amount of people out (I keep forgetting the real world doesn't operate on college time). It felt weird going basically straight from sleeping to running. But it felt good! I felt very productive when I went to church already having accomplished something in the morning.

I probably won't go running in the morning again though, because I just really don't like getting up any earlier than I have to. I could feel myself losing energy around 1 pm. We were at a going away party for a family I babysit for. I was sitting on a bed reading a Little Einsteins book to a couple kids. One of them, a four-year-old, was really sleepy, and he eventually flopped over and took a little nap while I was reading. While the rest of the kids were choosing the next book, I flopped over too and took a one minute power nap. Then I read the kids The Very Hungry Caterpillar. They should make a book called The Very Sleepy College Student. Instant classic right there.

Saturday 6/4 -K

4.28 mi
43:11
Ab workout


Interesting things on my run:

• No walking today!
• I saw lots of creepy landscapers out. I was scared but I kept running.
• I wore my sunglasses and I looked cool.
• I got attacked by a dog. I almost died. Ok not really, but it was close. This dog came up to me and when it decided it didn't feel like running with me, it walked away. Ok it wasn't close.
• Whenever I saw that someone was watering their yard, I ran through the sprinklers.
• Instead of walking up the shady hill that I usually walked up, I decided to try and beat Nicki Minaj's rap part in Where Them Girls At. I did. Suck it, Nicki Minaj, I can run faster than you can rap.

Interesting things during my ab workout:

• I pointed a fan at me so by the time I was finished, all of my sweat had dried up.
• My abs were sore from all of my recent previous ab workouts...so I struggled. But I did it all! Yay!

Friday 6/3 -K

Body Pump


Better than last time, I used correct weight amounts!

Interesting things at Body Pump:

• Maggie came with me! She's my friend from high school who I gave a ride to soccer until I graduated because she lives down the road from me and is 2 years younger, so she didn't have her license until I graduated. Which is cool because we're still friends and we work together and now we work out together.
• The instructor laughed at me when I almost fell over doing the dynamic lunges. So much so that she had to pause her instructing to collect herself. This is not the first time that has happened.
• I still felt like a pansy with the shoulder workout...I'll stick with the weenie weights until I don't die when I use them, which will probably be never.
• Of course the day the humidity level dropped a ton and the temperature wasn't above 80 is my weight training day...hopefully tomorrow it'll be the same and I'll be able to run without dying.
• I saw the guy who ran next to me yesterday, I recognized him by his yellow shoes. I wonder if he was ashamed to see me since I ran farther than he ran...probably.

On a side note, this weekend may or may not be a disaster. There are no holidays, so I have no excuse to eat five pieces of cake in one day.

Thursday 6/2 - I

30 minutes
Move in Workout

I ran through my apartment compound today, past the old burned down pool house that has an interesting story: in 1985, Reagan and Gorbatchev met for the first time to talk about the arms race. They met in Geneva Switzerland, at a mansion with beautiful grounds called Fleur D'eaus. That mansion&grounds is now the apartment complex where I live!

My dad found all this out when we moved here and found some pictures online from the Reagan-Gorbachev meeting and then took pictures of what the place looks like now... The mansion (now it's the offices of a catering company) is still there, among the newlybuilt modern little apartment buildings. So are the charred remains of the pool house where they met. Every time I run through that part of the compound the twampiest part of my heart sings
because I feel like I'm right where history happened!

my family's apartment

So that was the interesting thing of my run today. I spent it thinking about how lucky I am to live here and how I'm going to miss it when I move!

Thursday 6/2 -K

5.25 miles
55:08


So I finally swallowed my pride and ran inside on a treadmill (no lie, I first typed terdmill...hm). It has been just too stinking hot outside to run, which is obnoxious. But whatever.

Interesting things on my run:

• What is it with people getting on treadmills and ellipticals that are RIGHT NEXT TO ME? I totally ran farther than the guy next to me...
• I watched Judge Alex and The French Open. Judge Alex isn't as sassy as Judge Judy, but it's ok. I still think he handled the situations presented to him quite well. The French Open made me want to be good at tennis.
• I alternated between running and speed walking, but whatever. I went over 5 freaking miles. So there.
• I find it ironic that I'm wearing my Sweating For You freshman move-in shirt, because I was for sure sweating like crazy.
• Now, all I want to do is sleep. But I have to go sit in the sun for 5 hours supervising the lives of pool attenders. I hope I don't die.

Wednesday 6/1 -K

300 crunches
50 reverse crunches


 I am so angry. I was planning on running SO FAR today once the sun started setting, because then I wouldn't die of heat stroke. One problem - dinner wasn't ready until then. I wasn't going to eat a lot so I could still get my run in. Too bad we had steak for dinner and it's impossible to eat only a little bit of steak.

 I had a plan: I'd go running and eat cake when I got back. A wise person once told me, "Don't regret the dessert, regret the not working out." It was perfect.

 I tried to digest my dinner quickly, but I'm not entirely sure how to digest food on command. I think it's just a natural process that can't be artificially enhanced...or maybe it can. I just don't know how.

 It wasn't going to happen. I was devastated. I sat up in my room, hoping that the sun would wait a little bit longer to set for my sake. No dice.

 When I finally accepted the fact that I wasn't going running, I decided that something still had to be done, so I did crunches. Lots of them. I think I pulled a muscle in my stomach, but that didn't stop me. I was still angry from not being able to run I had to avert my anger towards something productive. What better way to do that than doing crunches?

...running.

Tuesday 5/31 -K

Went to da gym!


My gym is pretty sweet, basically all I did was 10 minutes on the elliptical and then the weight machines. (I do my cardio every other day.) Also, I get free membership since I work there.

Interesting things that happened while I was at the gym:

• I watched Judge Judy and an infomercial about Paint Zoom.
• Judge Judy is so sassy, she told this one guy that it was time for him to put his big boy pants on.
• This man got on the elliptical in front of me, blocking Paint Zoom, which made me mad during the Judge Judy commercials.
• This other man got on the elliptical next to me...that's just wrong! There were at least seven other ellipticals in the room. Why he had to pick the one beside me I'll never know. I was scared that his sweat would fly off of him and land on me.
• I couldn't figure out how some of the machines worked, so I looked quite silly trying to adjust them. Luckily for me I was one of six people at the gym this afternoon (yet this guy still ellipticalled next to me...?) so nobody (aside from an old lady, who I'm pretty sure didn't know how to use the machines herself, so it didn't really matter) saw my confusion.
• The large sweaty men that were there didn't wash off the machines after they used them. I find that DISGUSTING and gross. I got a wart my sophomore year of high school and I blame the gym for it. Actually, I blame the disgusting people who don't clean up after themselves.
• I made a doctor's appointment after my workout since the office is right above the gym. For what? Wart removal. I'm still suffering from the carelessness of gym members five years later. What a shame.

Tuesday 5/31 -I Dance Dance Revolution!

Today it was raining, so instead of going running I played DDR with my brother. I freakin LOVE this game. When I was in middle school I bought a playstation just so I could play it.

In case anyone doesn't know the game DanceDanceRevolution, it's the game where you use a mat with arrows on it and step on the arrows to different songs. It can get really intense. I attribute my skill at/love of this game to my being a quarter Asian. Somehow instead of the black hair gene I got the DDR skill gene (my brother got the Guitar Hero skill gene).

Reasons I love DDR:

• I'm pretty good at it, but it's still challenging. Through the years I've worked through beginner, light, and standard, and now I can play some songs on heavy-the hardest level.
  
• I feel like I'm at a rave when I play it, and forget that...
• It's really good exercise. With all the jumping my calves are always sore afterwards, and I was definitely out of breath and sweating a LOT. But I played for over an hour without even remembering I was getting a workout.
• The funny Japanese pop music (eg- the song "Sweet Sweet ♥ Magic")
  
• Two player mode lets you play against your friends

I asked my brother today if I could take the playstation to college so I could play DDR at school next semester, and he reminded that I was the one who bought it in the first place. So now I'm really excited about having it at school next year!

Monday 5/30 -K

2.31 miles
23:25
10:07/mi
Ab workout(ish)

Interesting things on my run:

• I wore my hat, which was kind of awkward and I should have worn my sun glasses, but oh well.
• I decided that from now on I will run at night because even the early hour of 8:45 is too hot for me.
• There is this weird pile of pink, red, and blue string on the side of the road. I'm not sure what it is but I think it may be disgusting. I'm too scared to move it.
• I admit, I walked a few times. I managed to run the first two miles though, after that, whenever I saw shade I walked. I ran in the sun because I wanted to get it over with.
• My runs the past few days started out with Alex Goot's Sensitivity. I don't really like Alex Goot, he kind of scares me even though I've never met him. He is some kind of talented though, check out his Youtube channel. But, for some reason, his song has made it to the number one spot on my running playlist. And I'm ok with it. 
• Actually, I don't have a running playlist. It's just a list of songs that are either recently added or that I'm not embarrassed to have other people hear. When I finally make a playlist, I'll be sure to let you know.
• My earbuds kept falling out of my ears today. Not sure whether that was due to sweat or earwax or the fact that earbuds never stay in my ears, probably a combination of all three.
• I wore a shirt I got from Dollar General
• I almost died of heat stroke

Interesting things during the ab workout

• I did the ab workout in my room today, where I decided I want to get rid of my purple fuzzy rug because the pieces of fuzz stick to me.
• I didn't get to the hammer chops (idk what they're really called) or the planks because I needed to leave my house asap. I work as a lifeguard and wasn't supposed to start my shift until 3. Me, being the smart person I am, decided to get to the pool by 10:30 because I wanted to get a parking spot before the Memorial Day crowd forced me to park 2 miles away. I already ran, I don't need to do any more work than I have to.

Monday 5/30 -I

45 minutes
Move-in workout

Interesting things:

• I saw two cats on my run. Both of them stared at me. One was a random white/brown patchwork stray, and one was my neighbor's cat. I think her name is Roobie (the cat, not the neighbor), but my brother and I just call her FatCat (again, the cat, not the neighbor). And whenever we talk about FatCat or talk to FatCat my brother and I talk in this funny voice, kind of like a baby voice but really low. I'm not sure why. FatCat is really funny- we see her on the path outside my house all the time, and she'll look at you sheepishly for a couple seconds and then dart into the bushes. Except since she is fat sometimes she gets stuck and can't make it all the way into the safety of the bushes and has to back out and try to find a better opening.
• I was motivated to not stop running on my way back by the fact that I was supposed to skype with one of my best friends, Jenn, at 9:00. I was running late (ha that was puninentional) and I would be even later if I stopped to walk. So I ran faster than I would have otherwise. But I walked a little bit too...I'm bad about forcing myself to run when I'm alone.. I need my running buddies from last summer to rejoin me

*Isabel's Freshman Move-in Preparation Workout

The Sun Salutation, (I used to do a lot of yoga) but in the middle where you do the plank I also do:
Push Ups (I can only do like 5 real ones now...but I'm increasing it every time I work out)
20 Plank Leg Lifts
30 Side Crunches
30 Normal Crunches
15 Backwards Tricep Pushups (I don't know how to describe this very well... you lie on your back with your knees bent and have your hands on the ground next to your butt and lift your self up)

5/23-5/28: First week in Switzerland!

So I'm back home in Geneva Switzerland for (part of) the summer! My goal is to get back in shape and go running as much as I used to when I lived here. One of my big motivations is that I signed up to help with Freshman Move-In in August, and I want to be able to carry their boxes all day without dying.

I got to Geneva on Monday, and since then I've gone running three times. That's more than I went last semester at W&M (the humidity and my business/laziness stopped me...).Here's a recap:

Tuesday 5/24:
15 minutes (it was my first time running in a long time...AND a lot of it was up a really steep hill..)
Freshman Move-in Preparation Workout*

I ran to my old high school and back (got stuck behind a bunch of the boarders-the school is half boarding school-on their way to dinner). Then I went and watched the sunset down by the lake (my house is right by Lake Geneva)


Thursday 5/26:
1 Hour
Move-in Workout

I ran with my highschool friend Tanmay, who's back from UW Madison. We actually walked and talked more than we ran. Since I took Philosophy of Religion last semester I've been really interested in hearing about people's beliefs. Tanmay's beliefs are mostly Hindu, and I'm Christian, so it was really interesting talking to him. And it definitely distracted me from how tired I was from running! We ran to the Centre Sportif de Versoix and ran a mile around the track and then came back.

Friday 5/27:

I didn't go running, but we went to a family's house for dinner and I looked after their adorable little kids and jumped on their trampoline with the kids for like an hour...and it was tiring so I figured I'd count it as exercise.

Saturday 5/28:
45 Minutes
Move-in Workout

Ran to the sports center again and ran a mile around the track and then back home. At the track I wasn't running very fast, but I felt like I was because I was the fastest person on the track- there was just a man jobbing and a middle aged woman speed-walking.

let's give a warm welcome to...

Isabel! I've convinced her to start writing a workout blog! She'll post to this one until she is brave enough to start her own. Or she'll just forever post to this one, that's fine too. Yay!

5/28/11

3.13 miles
31:26
10:02/mi
Mae's ab workout

Interesting things on my run

• I'm so sore from Body Pump yesterday, that's why it's a terrible time
• I saw my 7th grade Civics teacher gardening
• I almost started walking, but I saw my neighbor cleaning his mailbox and I didn't want to seem like a wimp in front of him
• I walked up the steep hill, but only after this car passed me so I didn't seem like a wimp
• I got chill bumps cause it was cold when I started running
• the temperature rose a butt load and I sweated more than I've ever sweated in my life
• I wore a highlighter yellow shirt that made me look super tan - it also worked as a safety precaution so cars wouldn't run into me
• the dead squirrel I saw the other day had turned into a brownish red pancake

Interesting things during my ab workout

• I was so sweaty that when I got up, I was covered in dog fur
• I did the whole thing!

5/27/11

Body Pump


 Body Pump is this thing at my gym where you do weight training to music. It's pretty sweet. We used to have Group Power, but they changed it up right after my Spring Break. Body Pump is basically a more intense version of Group Power with longer songs and better music. It was my first time doing Body Pump, so I used the weenie weights. I felt very silly. My sister laughed at me, but whatever. I didn't see her lifting any weights...she was just awkwardly sitting in the back waiting for Zumba to start.

Interesting things at Body Pump

• it was my first time ever
• I didn't die, but I almost did during the shoulders portion
• I got really confused during aerobic lunge time
• I also got really confused during the dynamic around the world planks
• I couldn't reach my toes during stretch time
• the girl behind me kept checkin me out (according to my mom...weird)
• I didn't use enough weights for the warmup, legs, back and biceps
• my disdain towards shoulder exercises was affirmed

I should run today, but it's raining men, hallelujah, outside and thundering so I guess I'll just have to run...later. Tomorrow morning, perhaps? We'll see how motivated I am.

5/25/11

3.33 miles

31:38

9:29/mi

Mae's ab workout* (partially)

Interesting things on my run:

• dead squirrel in the middle of the road that wasn't there the first time I passed that spot
• barking dogs restrained by invisible fences
• hurting ankle
• seeing my neighbor's boyfriend leaving her house
• a bird almost pooped on my head. When I ran under the telephone wire, it flew away. As it flew away, I saw poop land on the ground near my foot. No lie.

Interesting things during my ab workout:

• Brown Dog stepping on my legs
• Brown Dog biting my hair
• Brown Dog licking my sweat off of me
• Brown Dog biting my earphone cord
• Brown Dog barking at her bone that she flung under the table because she wanted me to get it for her
• Brown Dog biting my face
• Me giving up before the planks since Brown Dog was annoying the crap out of me. Next time, she won't be in the room as I workout

*Mae's ab workout

50 crunches x2
40 side crunches on each side x2
25 hands under your butt and knees together, make your feet extend almost toward the ground but not touching x2
50 sit on your butt twisting and chopping your hands on either side of your body (x2 if you're feeling daring)
30 second plank
25 second plank
20 second plank
(eventually you can boost up the times you plank)
end on 50 crunches, last 15 super slow