Now running

I completed week three of my running plan and I'm surprised that it's still relatively easy. Not easy really, but not oh my god I'm going to die hard. And I must be improving some because I remember during week one I missed the cue to start walking again after a running interval and kept running for a whole 2.5 minutes! I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but my lungs were starting to burn by the end of that 150 seconds. Surprisingly, I survived the first day of week four without having to stop during a five minute sustained run. I'm not sure why I am so incredulous but perhaps I haven't ever been "athletic".

Although the two weekday morning "runs" are inside on a treadmill, I've been going to the trail downtown and doing two sets of the training podcast. I found two different podcasts that follow the same interval structure so it's the same but different. One has a lot of verbal cueing which can be nice so you know there is just one minute left until the end of the interval or just one more run. The other one is just music and has a series of ascending or descending beeps to indicate and increase/decrease in speed.

I have given myself a goal, or maybe more a challenge to work toward. October 10th is the local marathon. Which I will not be participating in, but I did sign up for the corresponding 10K which sounds so daunting, until you realize it's only 6.3 miles. Six is almost half of ten when you look at it that way. (But drivers in Canada can go 100km/hour which seems so much more fun.) Anyway, we have a matinee show that afternoon too and an evening rehearsal for the In Concert fundraiser so 10/10/10 will be a busy day for me.

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Mild winter still equals savings

I forgot to post this earlier in the summer. It's almost time to start heating the house again! Even with the mild winter that the west coast had this year we still managed save some money with the new 92% efficient gas furnace. I adjusted the estimated oil usage to reflect the warmer temperatures but kept the same delivery dates and called to get the current prices on those dates.

Estimated ’09-’10 cost of heating the house with oil: $632.50

Actual ’09-‘10 final natural gas bill: $336.76

Dollars saved: $295.74

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Fitness or Folly?

I decided to start running this month. I didn't really decide as was convinced and persuaded by Paul who has already run a half-marathon this year and is working up to a full marathon in November. I have no desire to run that far, but I would like to be able to run without that horrible burning feeling in my lungs after 3 minutes. I'm starting slow with an interval training program based on the couch to 5K method. I just finished my first week with it and will start week 2 tomorrow. Not all of the beginning programs are the same. I downloaded several different podcast versions all between 8-9 weeks long. The first week 1 program I tried has intervals of 60 sec running followed by 90 sec brisk walk. That was great. It was a little hard, but I didn't feel like I was going to die. Then decided to mix things up and try a different week 1 podcast. Apparently this one has 2 min of running followed by 3 minutes of walking. That makes a big difference. Even though over the 30 minutes I ran the same amount I really wanted to give up and quick most of the time. That feeling is not going to keep me coming back for more so I switched back to the first version for my third session of the week.
I know it should be hard, I should push myself, but if it's too much I know I won't stick with it and will probably hurt myself in the process. Hopefully week two will go as smoothly as week one.

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September 1

I may be woefully short on self-stiched clothes for the month, but I still plan on putting up a fight. I pulled one of my 9-year old sleeveless tops out today and paired it with a cardigan and slacks for work today. I'm not sure what I'll have to wear tomorrow, but I know I can definately get at least one weeks worth of SSS out of the clothes I do have and we'll see where it goes from there. I'm going to try and post pictures once a week of my outfits as I manage to pull them together.

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Too much on my plate, nothing to show for it

I had such grand plans. Three months ago I saw the post for Self-Stiched-September and thought that three months was plenty of time to start sewing and have several basics done so I could try wearing 1+ handsewn items for the entire month. Since then I have sewn one skirt, and started and failed one dress. The dress was a failure because I tried to modify the pattern significantly before figuring out the fitting issues in the original pattern. I still have the sleeves, and can salvage the circle skirt but I'm not sure I would actually wear the resulting dress. I should just chalk it up to a failure and try the pattern again the way it was intended.

So despite my intentions. I don't think I'll be ready to commit to SSS. Except I already committed myself and now I just won't be able to follow through. I have a contingency plan though. More of a modification plan. If I could make one new item a week and wear it I would be far behind the idea of wearing something everyday, but I would come out of the month having sewn four new things. And four things in a month would be impressive by my standards.

I don't know what happened to the summer. Although I felt like summer was coming to a close in June, now that it actually is I'm not sure what I did with myself during the last three months.

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Watermelon

In the summer at work we have barbeque lunches every other friday. Today was chicken/steak shishkabobs with pinapple and peppers with watermelon on the side. When I walked into the kitchen at work this afternoon for a glass of water I saw the rind of two or three large watermelons in the trash can, next to the compost can. Most of the compost in the office is from the coffee machine. We have a lot of coffee grounds each week. But it has been a fight to remind people that they can put things like apple cores and orange peels and radish leaves (although I admit that once, I actually pulled out a bunch of radish leaves from the compost can, washed them off and ate them for lunch!) and other food waste in the compost instead of the trash. The giant watermelon rinds in the trash just made me sad.

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no yogurt this week

I tried to make yogurt for the first time this weekend. It did not turn out. There are so many things that could have gone wrong. First, the expired rasberry yoplait from the mini-mart was definately not an ideal starter. I was also a little distracted while I heated the milk and first let it get too hot, then while I was cooling it to add the starter, let it get too cool. I heated it up again to 120F before I added the rasberry yoplait. Whatever happen, it didn't set and is still all liquidy. I can still use it for baking, but probably only for fruity baked goods since there is the tinge of rasberry in there still. I need to find the candy thermometer again too since I'm pretty sure the instant read thermometer I used is a little off and I had to keep checking periodically.

I did make a new cover for the dog bed though...

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