I did it!

I did it! I ran/walked all by myself :-)

My brain hurts, and I had a stitch in my side, and I thought my lungs might explode during the first minute, and I was sweating in the most unfeminine way, and my feet now smell; but other than that I feel great!

For my warm-up I walked to the Andy Warhol Bridge, it was there I said, "Hello Bridge, how are you today? You better watch out, 'cause I'm gonna run across you!"

My first minute of running consisted of me making it halfway across the bridge all the time thinking to myself, "I should be at my desk, surfing the internet, eating a cupcake, but noooo, I'm here running, WTF?!?!"

4 minutes of walking took me down to the Riverfront Trail, the next minute of running took me to under the Roberto Clemente Bridge. Bridges are good points to aim for I've found, they're big and hard to miss. 4 more minutes of walking took me past the kayak-ers (which I totally want to do on a Sunday - hint, hint Alyssa - good cross training!) and a whole bunch of kids fishing.

The next minute running took me to the next bridge - Fort Duquesne maybe? It was there I turned around and headed back. 4 minutes of walking, then my last minute of running to the Roberto Clemente Bridge. I then walked back the way I came - across the Andy Warhol Bridge and through town, back to work.

By the time I made it back to work, my headache had developed and my legs were tingly - ah, such is life. Tomorrow is a rest day, and then it's the same as today for Thursday, just with one more rep of run 1 minute walk 4 minutes.

Side note - that meany Alyssa texted me a picture of a cookie while I was running. She's so mean, how I hate her, haha... I kid, I kid. I'll just send her a picture of a cupcake while she's running tonight!

All by myself...

Day 1 of walk/running and Alyssa has ditched me! Ok, so not really, she's just got to run right after work since they're having a plumber come over at 6, anad since I don't even get off work until 5:30, I won't even be home until 6. So, the current plan is that I will walk/run at lunch. It shouldn't be too bad: 1 minute of running, 4 of jogging, repeated 4 times.

Alyssa emailed me my before photos last night - it reaffirmed my plan to not show them online!

And so it begins...

Alyssa and I began our 22 weeks of training yesterday with 35 minutes of cardio/ab work. I felt fine at the time, but this morning I feel as if I were hit by a mack truck! Today is a rest day, and tomorrow we begin walking/running. Following our workout we did our before photos - needless to say those will not be posted on this website (except maybe of course at the end if the transformation is noticeable enough).

I got Leap Year from Netflix on Saturday, I am slightly (but only slightly) ashamed to say I have now seen it 4 times - since Saturday! It is such a cheesy movie, and yet I like it alot! I think I like it because the Irish guy in it does not like Dublin at all - which was my feelings exactly when I was there last year. Granted he felt that way because a back-stabbing b**** of an ex lived there, I felt that way merely because it was the end of my trip, I didn't want to go home, and I had fallen head-over-heels in love with the highlands of Scotland and so anything that followed would be dull in comparison. Or another reason I may like it so much is because I think the Irish (although technically in real life he's British) guy in it is HOT! What can I say, I like tall scrawny scruffy guys with killer accents - so if you know of any, send them my way.

And so it goes... I feel I may watch Leap Year again this evening while I clean my house, and then maybe I'll be able to seal it in its envelope and send it on its way. Fingers crossed. Just don't judge me if I can't!

Time to turn a new page...

Alright, so I know it's been about forever and day since I've posted anything on here and I'd like to just say now: "I'M SORRY!!"

To sum things up quickly, Sancho the rambunctious bloodhound has moved to a farm in Erie, and I have replaced him with a sweet mild tempered basset hound named Ellie who was rescued from a puppy mill in December and had been living in foster care. I've been slowly and steadily working on the novel I've had brewing in my mind for years now I'm up to about 80 pages written right now. And (drum roll please...) I've signed up to run a half marathon!

Crazy I know, considering I'm about the most out of shape person ever, but I've got a good feeling about this one. I've convinced Alyssa to sign up with me, so we've got 22 weeks of training before the November 6th race. I wanted to do the Disney World half marathon in January but time and budget constraints have forced us to look for something closer to home, and so we chose the Stomp the Grapes Half Marathon at the Maize Valley Winery outside of Canton OH (http://www.stompthegrapeshalfmarathon.com/)

We're going to start the training with 8 weeks of walk to run training - building up the ability to run for 30 minutes at a time - and then follow that up with 14 weeks of distance training.

Goals I/we hope to accomplish in this crazy endeavour:

1. lose weight
2. improve cardiovascular health (now doesn't that sound like it came from a brochure?)
3. not get injured
4. improve overall fitness level
5. meet the 16 minute mile requirement
6. to just finish the damn thing!

And so all this craziness starts Sunday (only 1 more day of being a sloth) - I'll so my best to keep ya posted!

Tipping Glass

Starting Tuesday January 26th I'm going to have a weekly spot on the Tipping Glass website. As their travel blogger I'm going to start with just a spotlight on a different small town or mid-size city in the US each week, and will eventually add international spots and weekend get-aways. Stop by and check it out!

http://www.tippingglass.com/

GRRRRR.....

Just a little vent moment. SOMEONE ELSE STOLE MY NAME!!! www.theladynomad.com was launched in September, wheras I - www.theladynomad.blogspot.com - have been around since April. It's enough to really 't' me off. I do wish her luck on her website and say "Pbbbtttt!!!! I was here first!"

grrr....

Hudson

This is Hudson:

But before we get to him, here's Little Tokyo where we bought the sushi for tonight:

And this is about 1/2 of said sushi:

Ok, ok, ok... Now for the more important pictures

Hudson and his Mommy (Jen)

Hudson and his Daddy (Dave)

Hudson and Alyssa

Hudson and Bob

And, last but not least, Hudson and Me!