This week's wrap-up

Well, another week down. Things here are moving right along at the speed of a slug.

Hope you like the new and improved look. I thought the blog needed an update. Kind of nice and colorful.

This week wasn't so productive getting to the gym but I did do 2 two-mile runs outside this week. On Tuesday, the first mile not so hot and the second mile pretty good. On Thursday, it was the opposite. The first mile went well and the second was a real chore.

I was supposed to do three miles on Saturday but it ended up that Bunny and I went on doggy walking tour of Central Park. It was pretty nice and since it was such a nice day we walked around some more. The tour itself was okay. I learned a few things. There were about 6 of us and the tour guide, everyone with dogs. Bunny didn't know what to do. It's one of the few times she's been on an extension leash so she had about 10 feet to move at a time. And learn when to stop before running out of leash. I took lots of spring pictures. I'll bet this weekend and next weekend are going to be the spring peak. Maybe one more weekend after that. So we took the subway up and Bunny finally got comfortable the stop before we got off. Figures. Then we walked around the zoo, the mall, Bethesda Fountain, some of the Ramble and over to Belvedere Castle. We finished the tour there and so we walked on around the Turtle Pond and back down the park through all the grassy areas (Bunny loves grass and dirt). By the time we got back to where we started (59th and 5th), I put her in her sling (like the ones they use for babies), and hopped on the bus, where she proceeded to sleep almost the entire way home. I didn't hear from her for about two hours after that, she was so tired.


So I put off my run till today. Well, we got up and I was still tired but relatively determined. I had decided to run this in on the treadmill so that I wouldn't stop so much and would do the whole thing. After taking Bunny to daycare, I head over to the gym where I'm feeling a little blah mentally. I warm up with 12 minutes on the elliptical and then over to the treadmill. Off I go. I get through the first .8 mile and feel like I just want to fall down with lethargy. I tried to stay with it but just didn't have the heart. Got in a whopping 1.5 miles. Pathetic! I do finish my strength training but was frustrated with that because a couple of people were hogging the machines. I waited over 15 minutes for one machine and finally gave up on another cause by then the same person who had been hogging the first machine was on this one. AGH!

Picked Bunny up from daycare and decided to call it a day, came home and decided to take a bath. Guess who came in too?


Anyway, this week was okay at work. It's the first week we've actually worked 5 days in quite some time (clarification: I do the news every morning and then go over and do the LIVE show but the LIVE show is sometimes on tape on Fridays so it makes it feel like I've only got to work a half a day). So we'll be working like that till May 9th when we have the Mother's Day show and start Summer Fridays. It seems like a long way away from now but it's really only about 2-3 weeks. This coming week, I have to deal with whatever Pope coverage they decided to do. That's going to be a pain.

I'm looking forward to the good weather that's coming in a couple of days. It really makes it much easier to get out.

I still don't know if I'll be running in the adidas Run for the Parks that I signed up for next weekend. It just seems like my running isn't going nearly as well physically as it is mentally. I guess I'll see how things are going this week but I still haven't managed to run 2 miles without stopping. And I haven't gone over 2 miles since 2007. I'm thinking I need to go all the way back to the basics -- run 1 minute, walk 1 minute, etc. and work up all from scratch again.

Elizabeth and all her picture-taking has made me think more about the pictures I've been taking so I worked on some examples of depth of field (yes, you can do this on a normal digital camera), the multiple photo button, the regular pic/zoom pic at the same time. It's really pretty neat what you can do without even buying a really expensive camera.




I'm going to leave you with a some of my favorites of the pictures I took yesterday. Spring in Central Park. Ahh.

Chelly





p.s. Almost forgot. This week's goals: basically get some significant exercise (that doesn't include Bunny) every day this week. Either running or cardio at the gym. And strength training Tuesday and Thursday. And Weight Watchers on Wednesday night.

My trainer wants me to start going up and down stairs -- yuk! My answer, I downloaded the entire first season(?) of Gilad's workouts from iTunes and I'm going to try to do one a day. Since they're only 20 minutes, I think I can get them in often.

I can do better

Hi all,

Here's the weekly update of how I'm doing running-wise. I really had high hopes for the week and just didn't follow up on them; I'm using a rough week at work as an excuse. But there's really no excuse for it.

I started out good last Sunday by going to the gym and doing 16 minutes on the elliptical and running 1 mile on the treadmill and did strength training. Monday I didn't do anything which I wasn't upset about because I'd worked out Friday and Sunday. Tuesday I went out and ran 2 miles. The first mile went really good and I only stopped once during it. The second mile, not so good. I think I was stopping every two minutes at least. Of course, I don't count any of that on my Nike Plus (yes, I know I should) so on average I did 11:10mm. So I'm still running faster. Wednesday, I was planning on resting and I did. And then I rested Thursday. Then Friday. My trainer came over Friday and we did a little core work but otherwise, I hadn't done anything the end of this week except walk and run with Bunny.

So I wanted to run at least 7 miles this week and I've only run 3 so far. I was supposed to do a three mile run Saturday which I did 2.25. Lots of stops but average of 10:59mm. Gotta get rid of those stops!!!

Today I'm volunteered for the MORE Half Marathon and Marathon at the NY Flyers water stop behind the Met. So I was out cheering everyone on after dropping Bunny off for a full day of daycare. I had a great time however, my fingers still hurt from the cold. And the fingers on one hand are all yellow from the Gatorade. I saw everyone I knew who was running which was really great. Then Debbie and I met up afterwards for brunch.

This week's exercise goals are:
Monday - cardio and strength -- and to clean my apartment
Tuesday - run 2 miles (at least 15 minutes of this straight with NO stops)
Wednesday - cardio
Thursday - run 2 miles
Friday - cardio and strength
Saturday - run 3 miles (maybe 4)

Some other things which are kind of goals and kind of thought are:
returning to Weight Watchers
do calorie count on food I regularly eat
I've been thinking that many people who lose great amounts of weight think about themselves as fat people in a skinny body and I'm realizing that some of my problem may be that I'm an overweight (can't bear to use the word fat) and I'm still surprised to see myself in the mirror because I think of myself much thinner than I am now. Any thoughts on this? Could this be why it's harder for some people to lose weight?
Trying to figure out how I can not feel guilty about leaving Bunny or putting her in daycare while I exercise. Mom says it's kind of the same thing that parents go though when they have kids. I don't know but it's making it hard to have any motivation. I feel like I should be with her and taking her out and playing with her and that she's going to be sad and lonely if I'm gone.
What and where is my motivation? A few years ago I realized I either had to work out or I would die! Having heart disease on both sides of my family, it's not such a gigantic leap. And I was very motivated. Now I feel like I have no motivation whatsoever. Do I want to run a half-marathon? Have I burned out on running? working out in general? is this related to getting Bunny because I'm not just focused on myself?
How do I resolve or deal with all these things?

Okay, sorry, blog got very personal an kind of philosophical for a moment. You'd think I'd been drinking or something (no, I haven't -- it's only 9am).

Let's see. That's about it for now. I'll leave you with two pictures. One of spring flowers and one from Atlantis in the Bahamas which just looked fantastic. I'd love to be there now laying in the sun with a book and a drink in easy reach.

Have a great week!

Chelly

Successes and Failures this week

Hi,

I know another posting so soon. Well, I had the previous one written last week and was just waiting to put pictures in. So I loaded them last night so you got your post. A little late but better than 3 months later!

This week had both successes and failures on the running side. I went to the gym on Monday and ran 2 miles on the treadmill. I got through the first mile without stopping at all (although I did hang on a little), I took a .1 mile walking break and then started the second mile. I had to stop twice during that mile to walk and get a drink and breathe but I ended up doing 2 miles at 10:32 pace. Not too bad.

Tuesday I went to the gym and did 20 minutes cardio and 30 minutes strength training. That all went well. I'm using a new program that NYSC has where you print out what you're supposed to so and which machines to do and how much weight on each machine. I think I'll end up liking it once I get used to it.

Wednesday I had planning on going running but had a horrible knot in the front of my hip. So I went out running with Bunny. We ran about .75 miles and Bunny was tired. All together I walked about 3 miles and carried Bunny about a mile. She played at the 23rd Street dog run for awhile and I was going to go running myself after that but my hip hurt so bad that I didn't.

Thursday I ended up working till 1:30p and I wasn't expecting that at all! By the time I got home, I didn't want to do anything. I didn't even take Bunny out to play. Sad Bunny.

Friday I was all set to go to the gym. I took Bunny out early so I could come home right away and get there and I made the mistake of sitting down for 15 minutes and fell asleep for 2.5 hours. Then I had a friend coming over that I hadn't seen in a couple of years so I cleaned house. Obviously I didn't get to the gym. However, my hip is feeling much better after some stretching, Bengay and massage.

My trainer is coming over to do some stretching and evaluate my week. I need to do much better.

This week my goals are:
Sunday - cardio and strength
Monday -run 2 miles
Tuesday - run 2 miles and strength
Wednesday - rest (I'll be working till noon)
Thursday - run 2 miles
Friday - cardio and strength
Saturday - run 3 miles

Let's see how I do. Wish I had a love of running like Bunny does.


Chelly

Commitments and encouragement

Hi everyone,

Well, I'm going to ask for lots of support over the next 8 months or so. As I mentioned before, I'm starting to run again. I still can't run a mile without stopping to breathe but I've signed myself up for a 4-mile run on April 20; I've entered the lottery for the NYC Nike Half Marathon on July 27; and I've accepted my entry to the NYC Marathon on Nov. 4. I've got a long way to go. Any support or encouragement is appreciated and desperately begged for.

I've actually gone out and done a mile 4 days in the past week and I've gotten down from stopping 7 times to stopping 4 times to breathe. But Monday I started working up to the 4 miles for the April 20th race. So if you see me huffing and puffing around the Union Square area or on the Hudson River Park, give me a little thumbs up.

I tried to inspire myself by doing a little shopping the other day at Jack Rabbit Sports. I got two new **whisper** bras, 3 pairs of running capris and a pair of long lightweight running pants.

Otherwise just spending time with Bunny of course. Including taking her down to the Washington Square Dog Run after the rains so she can play and get really really dirty. And then taking her to the groomer where she gets all clean and fluffy and I just want to run my hands through her hair all day.


I noticed some buds coming out on the tree the other day when I was in the Union Square Dog Run. It gave me a little hope that spring will come soon. I love the look especially of Madison Square Park when you just see this kind of green haze over the whole park because of the buds on the trees.


Just want to mention a new love of mine. Fage yogurt. Okay, I've actually loved this for awhile but now they have the 2% yogurt with honey, or cherry, or peach, or strawberry. Yummm. It's almost as good as dessert. Check it out if you see it.

Other things. I just finished watching the season finale of Kyle XY. Can't wait till next season. A real cliffhanger. And I'm watching New Amstrdam and Eli Stone. I also downloaded from iTunes "The Nanny and the Professor." If you remember this show from when you were a kid (which I don't), you'll know how good it was and if you don't remember it, you should grab an episode. It's a very nice, fun, sharp (for it's time) family show. And it was nice watching a 30 minute show that was actually 25-26 minutes long instead of today's shows which time out at about 21-22 minutes. I'm also almost through the first season of Lou Grant. Yep, dweebee, but wholesome.

I watched Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium lately and thought the movie was great except for the end. I felt that about the Golden Compass too. I feel like filmwriters are writing the same way I did for papers in college: a great intro, good research, and then just finish the dam* thing and write the conclusion in 10 minutes. Their story is good, the execution is good but oops, we're out of time or out of money so the film's done. It's really disappointing.

Guess I had more to say than I thought. Time to play with Bunny. Here's her with her ball, on the rock over at the 23rd Street Dog Run and if you want to have real fun, get a plastic spoon, put some marshmallow cream on it and give it to them. Isn't she a cutie pie. Happy Spring!



Chelly

Hi again!

Hi everyone. No, I did not drop off the earth although I feel like I did. I really haven't been managing my time very well lately and so lots of things have gotten overlooked.

I'll try to give you a quick update on my life and then I'll go from there.

Since last August, puppies have come into my life. One for me and two for mom and dad. Mine, Bunny, is a little cockapoo and she's just adorable. And yes, that is a new name. You first knew her as Belle, then she was Coco. But when I met her, and watched her run through the grass, her little behind looked like a bunny's. So she became Bunny. She loves playing, swimming, eating with me and running. She's my little sunshine. And she smiles. Really. See----


Mom and Dad's puppies are cocker spaniels and the older one is Mikey. He's a lovely brown and white and has the most incredible feet and eyes.

The other is Stevie and he's a merle (which is a hair pattern). He's a handful and is into everything.


Dad and the boys (the two cocker spaniels) came over in November and this is the best picture. It was kind of neat having 3 puppies in the city. Of course, I'm really glad it was just for the weekend. :)


Work has been pretty normal. We just came back from LA where we did 5 shows and we went to the Bahamas last fall. It was a fun trip cause we got to ride innertubes down the lazy river and also go on the water slides for the innertubes.

Of course, there was a trip home for Christmas where the dogs almost outnumbered the people. There were 5 puppies under 7 months old, Roxie and Doc (brother and sister from the litter that Ricco, my cousin's retired police dog sired), Mikey, Stevie, and Bunny. Of course, Ricco was there and also Ivy, a little Bijon thingy. And poor Prince, the cat, finding places to hide. Here's a couple of the Christmas pictures.








My running life has suffered greatly from having a puppy even though she loves running. When I run now, I'm running much faster but only run one minute at a time cause that's all Bunny can do. So my big challenge right now is trying to put the minutes together and actually get back to running a couple of miles at a time. I'm going to sign up for the NYC Nike Half Marathon Lottery and I'm also accepting my NYC Marathon space. I don't know if I'll be ready for the marathon or not, but I'm going to try.

Oh and the other additions to my life have been a 50-inch DLP TV, and HD-DVD and an AppleTV. Whoo-hoo! It looks great and it's really nice for movie nights. And I love AppleTV. All those TV shows and movies I've downloaded I can watch on my TV now. It's really pretty neat.


Well, I guess that's a quick update of my life except that I've been sick lately. Yucky! I've had the cold that's been going around and it just won't seem to leave. It's very frustrating for someone who's hardly ever sick to have a cold and cough that lasts 4-5 weeks. So that's another reason I haven't been working out much lately. Everytime I try to run, I get about a block before I'm coughing like crazy. I'm hoping that it'll be better by the end of the week. I really need to start running again if I'm going to do any races this year.

I'm working on better time management skills over the next few weeks and getting Bunny and me on a decent schedule so I can make time to blog. Especially since I've got some really cute pictures to share with you. Oh, and I finished the hardcover, 87-page book for the 2007 NYC Nike Half Marathon. I'll put a link up soon so you can see that too.

Thanks for hanging in there with me. I'll leave you with a little wishful thinking tulips. Spring's coming soon.

Chelly

Nike Half Report, and the rest is coming

Hi everyone,

Sorry I haven't posted lately. I've been a little taken with the new addition. But more about that later. First let me give you a little race report from the Nike Half Marathon from August.

Let me start with the expo and the pasta party. Oh and I went out and took some pre-race photos of some of the course (for the upcoming digital scrapbook). So the expo was pretty nice although small as they usually are. Nike had a great selection of regular t-shirts, some tech shirts, hats, and other paraphanilia. There were also some freebies like sunscreen, some nice maps, vaseline and magazines. We (Debbie and I) went and got our numbers and our shirts. Here we are picking up our numbers. I really liked all the graphics that Nike did for the event. Here's how long it is until the race. We also picked up our pace bands which were a little different because they were based on the time you thought you'd do but also on what time you'd do on the elevation of the course. I thought this would help a lot, but I think I would rather have had just a mile by mile breakdown cause they really had you speed up at the end to keep your time and I knew I wasn't speeding up at the end.

After the expo, we walked down to 42nd Street to the pasta party at BBKings. Here's Debbie on some of the course. A little preview. We got an earlier seating than we did at the MORE pasta party and maybe because of that, there just weren't that many people there. The food was great though. I thought it was much better than Tavern on the Green. And nice and quiet.


Off to bed at some ridiculus hour of about 8-9pm. And up early the next morning. We got a little confused with the baggage check but finally got them taken care of (I put mine with Debbie's since we both knew she'd be coming in about 45-60 minutes before me) and we headed for the corals.

I must say that the corals worked out very good. And I admit I pushed forward from my coral but just because I really thought I'd need the extra time. And I ran as close to the side as I could so I wouldn't be in anyone's way. I didn't feel quite so bad though cause I wasn't the only one moving up some.

So at some point the race began and we started running pretty quickly. I felt good and strong the first couple of miles. Elizabeth was supposed to run the Half that day too but she hadn't been feeling very good that week and so came and took pictures (millions of pictures) -- some of them with me in them. The first time she saw me, she almost didn't see me. Strangely enough, I saw her and yelled and said hi. That was right after the 72st Transverse on the west side. So up the hill to the reservoir. And then I managed to make it up the back of the Great Hill to the sound of Christina Agulara's Candyman. I really put on the pace down the hill and was thrilled to death to make it up the Lasker Pool hill to the sound Fatboy Slim's Rockafeller Shank. YEAH!!!!

Of course after that is when I made my first mistake. Up until then, I'd been running through the water stops and running, no matter what. But I walked through the water stop just below the 102nd Street transverse. Ah. That's where it started coming apart.

However, I managed to get out of the park in the required time and was very close to the time I wanted overall. After that I walked alot. I was alternating running and walking through Times Square and I must say the best thing was feeling like a top athlete as I was running straight down the middle of Seventh Ave. all by myself. (Ok, there were a couple of people around me, but not many). I managed to wave at the photographers before turning onto 42nd Street. And even though I'd run it before from Times Square to the West Side Highway had never felt so long.

I tried running a block and walking a block but soon it was run a block, walk 2, or maybe three, or look behind me and as long as there are people behind me, it's all okay.

Elizabeth and Team in Training showed up again around 14th Street and she got some good pictures of me. I tried to talk her into running a couple miles with me but she wasn't having any of it (grin). So off I go -- right, left, right, left.....


Finally I hit the 20k mark. Now I thought I was almost there but I think it must have been longer than I thought to get to the finish line. (By the way, I had given up on my goal time of under 3 hours somewhere around mile 9 -- at this point I'd hoped to be able to finish faster than the MORE half which was 3:06:48.) After hitting 13 miles, I decided I was going to run the rest -- ooohhh, a whole .1 so off I go. I made it in 3:07:48, I whole minute slower than the MORE half in March.

But you know, I was fine with that. I finished feeling good about everything, knowing I could have trained more and done better but happy with the job I had done. And I guess that's the important thing.

I saw Adam and the WABC crew who were tearing down the set from the broadcast. And then got pictures, found Debbie and we went and got Adam for pictures then hung out on the stage for a little bit. Elizabeth caught up with us again and we talked for a few and then Rachel caught up to us and we all went out for a post race celebratory brunch downtown.





The week after that was my birthday. And for this auspicious event, decided to have a Pizza, Beer and Cupcake party. Oh my gosh. Look at these cupcakes. Everyone had a great time.


And soon after I was winging it back to Ohio to pick up my puppy which when you last heard from me was named Belle. Since then she was named Coco (as in toasted coconut) but when I went home and saw her, she got named Bunny because from the back end she looks like a bunny when she runs. And that's what she still is to this day.

So that's the end of this post since I've been promising for weeks to post. I'll try to get another one off this weekend with puppy pictures.

Chelly

New Puppy Pictures and running

Hi all,

Mom and Dad went and visited the breeder today and sent me new pictures of Belle. I'm really nervous about becoming a puppy parent. Is she going to like me? Am I going to like her? Will she like the city? I guess we'll know soon enough. They're going to pick her up about a week before I get home so hopefully we'll know more about her then.

I went running this morning at about 1:45am. It was a nice morning for it and I got a good run in. And I managed to do almost 5 miles without going more than 8 blocks from home. I wanted to stay in the neighborhood for safety's sake. People are out everywhere though. I ran around Union Square twice and then up and down the streets between Sixth Ave. and Park Ave. South. People probably thought I was crazy. As soon as I finished the run, my knee started hurting tremendously. And continues to hurt. I'm hoping that it's just since I haven't run so much lately, it's just a little muscle soreness and not something pulled.

I think that's about it. Hope you like Belle's pictures.

Chelly