I haven't died, fallen off a cliff, gotten lost while running or been buried under a pile of books. I've been very very busy and not really motivated to blog.
I have, however,
Received my Garmin Forerunner 610 which I'll be reviewing shortly when I get over its new and awesomeness and stop wearing it all the time, even when doing the cleaning.
Tried to walk to High Cup Nick and failed due to bad weather last weekend. ('Shall we go back?' *Looks at horizontal rain and soaked Mr Scientist* 'Yeah')
Missed an interval training session simply because the gym was far and I was lazy.
Baked a lemon polenta cake for a friend because she's moved house and it's the first time I'll be seeing her since she moved.
I did intervals today. 10 x 1 minute jogging at 10 min/mile followed by 1 minute running like my life depended on it at 07:24 min/mile. By the 6 repetition it was kicking my arse, by the 10th it was handing it to me on a plate. I remembered why I hate interval training, but I've really struggled with my last few sessions so it was good to see that I could do this.
I finished The Beauty Myth last night and it was brilliant. By the end I'd grabbed a biro and was underlining bits and writing notes in the margins and I never do that.
I'm not going to go into much depth about the book because it's been reviewed by people more talented at getting to a book's essence and well-versed in feminism than I.
In the book which was originally published in 1991,Wolf asks the question why do women feel under greater and greater pressure to conform to certain physical standards while actually when it comes to political and personal rights we enjoy more freedoms than ever. She theorises that the monolith of 'them', 'the patriarchy', 'the establishment' feels threatened by the gains women made during the first wave of feminism and as such needs to create what Wolf calls an Iron Maiden. A metal sarcophagus in which victims are placed to either suffocate to death or be stabbed by the spikes inside and bleed to death.
According to Wolf the Iron Maidan which can be found imprisoning and suffocating women in all aspects of their lives: work, culture, religion, sex, hunger, and violence. It is not enough to merely be, women are told in all domains of their lives, they must also live up to a rigid and perfectionist set of standards which they are simultaneously being told they will never be capable of doing.
What Wolf doesn't really examine is how the myth affects non-white, non-middle class, non-heterosexual, non-professional and non-college educated women. Ethnic minority women and working-class women get a look in occasionally, but only as bit players that support the perspective of middle-class women. I suspect the book would be a multi-volume affair if she had. Subsequent books on similar topics, such as Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters, have made greater efforts to be more inclusive.
I read this feeling more and more guilty about the makeup bag in my bedside cabinet. Was my mascara a political statement saying I have bought into the self-loathing and misogyny? Wolf points out that there's no shame in wearing makeup or dying your hair or wearing skyscraper high heels, (or, ahem, losing weight) as long as the place from which you approach them is positive and not negative. I run to be strong, not to fit some else's ideal.
Also my frown deepened and deepened as I read it, because I don't know any men that buy into the beauty myth. The men in my life - my partner, brother, father, male colleagues and friends and acquaintances - treat women with dignity and respect, or rather, as human beings. But Wolf acknowledges that patriarchical institutions and not men as individuals enforce the myth.
Wolf is astoundingly perceptive - she notes that the beauty myth hurts men as much as women, and goes on to say that men will begin to be targeted by the rigid perfectionism of the Iron Maiden. She predicts a rise in male anorexia and other eating disorders. 20 years later men are being targeted by the beauty industry in similar ways, and eating disorders in men, which were once almost non-existant, have increased.
To steal someone else's phrase, I believe in very gradual change.
And I wonder what Wolf would make of the internet if she were writing today.
Congratulations if you made it this far. But what does this have to do with Weezer? When I was in the gym Buddy Holly came up on my iPod and there I was running along to a song which felt as fresh and relevant today as when I first heard it in 1994, much like The Beauty Myth, which was published a good two decades ago, does today.
Both of them made me feel a bit old as well. Seriously? The Little Mermaid's closer to the moon landing than today? I remember getting a free Flounder and Ariel with a Happy Meal. Jesus...
I woke up with this song in my head and kept humming the same first line over and over again while at the gym today. "I'd like to be under the sea/in an octopus' garden..."
Aside from that I've got nothing much to post. Today was supposed to be a rest day, but work and life commitments on Wednesday means I'm too busy to workout or even run so I've swapped Wednesday's CT session for today's rest day. I did a relaxed 30 minutes on the elliptical at level 10 and a slow pace followed by 30 minutes on the reclining fixed bicycle-thing at a fat burning level.
I've got 9 weeks until my 10k race so I've worked out a training schedule which I'm going to try and post. It's unleashed the geeky side in me and I colour the cell green when I've done the session and note far/fast etc as well as how I felt afterward.
Anyone else do anything like that to log exercise?
I learnt a few things while running the 5k race this morning.
1) If you haven't been training to run a 5k race at a certain pace which just happens to be faster than the pace you were aiming to run a 10k in found but found too difficult and had to reassess how fast you will be able to complete said 10k, you will not magically be able to run the 5k at this pace.
2) If you wake up feeling lethargic and bloated, it won't help either.
4) Despite losing 14lb, and training somewhat regularly, you will only knock 1 second off the PR you set over a year ago.
5) After running you'll end up with phlegm in your lungs so that whenever you laugh you sound like a 65 year-old woman who's smoked 40 a day since age 14 for a good few hours afterwards. (Seriously, lungs, WTF?)
So I finished the race in 25:30, deducting the time it took to get over the finish line. I couldn't keep up with my mate who was pacing a 24 minute 5k from the word go. I was really hoping to finish in under 25 minutes at least, but I just didn't have the energy to sprint at the end.
I was talking the race over with my partner Mr Scientist, and he made a very pertinent observation which lifted my spirits a lot when he pointed out that consistency is a good thing. Finishing a race in a similar time isn't as good as finishing it quicker, but it isn't worse either.
I've had to reassess my goal for the 10k. I have 9 weeks and I'm going to aim for a sub-hour 10k. After that I'm going to train for a sub-25 minute 5k, and I will achieve it.... eventually.
I had a rest day today.
I have transportation sorted out.
I have my breakfast for tomorrow ready.
My running stuff is all laid out.
Tomorrow I will attempt, for the first time ever, to run a sub-25 minute 5k.
The quickest I've managed so far is 25:31
I was a stone heavier when I did that in June last year.
I have a colleague who is a better runner and much fitter than me who is going to mark out a sub-25 5k.
On Thursday I ran 2 miles in 15:06, which is a 07:33 pace.
To do a 25 5k I need to run a 08:00 pace.
I should aim for a 24 minute 5k, which is approximately a 07:44 pace.
I'm terrified I'm going to fail, like I did the fitness test, like I have at losing much weight recently, like I do most challenges I set myself. I will go to bed worrying about letting myself down. About letting my colleague down.
I will get up anxious tomorrow. I will have a shower anxious, I will eat breakfast anxious, I will drive there anxious. I will meet my friends at the race anxiously. I will warm up anxiously. I will stand in the crowd, moving from foot to foot anxiously, making sure my laces are tied anxiously, making sure my the bun in my hair is tight but not too tight anxiously, I will check my iPod is ok anxiously, I will look from the start banner to the road I'm going to be running on for the next 5k anxiously.
When the start gun goes I will turn to my colleague, grin, and start running.
And I will not stop. I will keep going. I will push myself even though I'm tired, even though I'm sweating, even though my throat is tight and my lungs gasping for air. I will keep going even though I want to stop.
I've had two easy days as I've begun to taper ahead of the 5K race on Sunday. Yesterday was a 30 minute jog then 30 minutes on the elliptical machine, and today was a slow 5 mile run. Tomorrow I'm resting.
I the above version of Sing Sing Sing is one of my most favourite songs. Many moons ago I used to play the trumpet in a jazz band to a standard which never really got above middling to fair, but this song was one of the most fun pieces to play. It's the way it starts with the drums driving out a rhythm, the trombones chug out the start, in comes the rasping trumpets then the smooth saxes all in harmony and the drums keeping pulsing on. The variation in screaming stacatto brass, smooth legato wood wind, tinkling piano, loud and quiet, intricate and simple and all the sections playing different rhythms all together make it a joyous, bouncing piece of music. You can't help but move when you listen to it.
I listened to this in the gym and may have had a bit of a boogie moving in my hands up and down a bit while running in line with the parts I used to play...
Do you ever dance a long in the gym or out of it to music?
Well I failed the fit test with a measly 6 push-ups and 15 sit-ups. At least I know what I need to work out. I've started and stopped the 100 pushups challenge twice now, but I'm going to start again and continue. I'm also going to do the 200 situps challenge so I can get fitter and hopefully pass the test in a few months or so.
I aced the run, however, running 2 miles in 15:06.
We did the fit test before work at 7.30am, and I did what I usually do when I exercise in the morning - ended up sleepy by 11am despite having refueled after the test on a healthy breakfast of porridge, fruit, and a boiled egg washed down with black coffee then overeating at lunch time. It was very hard not to stress about not losing weight this week.
Even though I was careful at dinner and ate well I managed to only go slightly over my daily calorie limit I got obsessed with going to the gym to burn off enough to bring me well under. I found myself thinking, 'If I jog for 30 minutes then go on the elliptical for 30 minutes I could easily burn 500 calories'. Even writing this out has woken up the antsy worried voice in my body that is saying I need to exercise like crazy even though my hamstrings and my sciatic nerve in my right bum muscle is aching like crazy so I've had to take ibuprofen today to dull the pain and I need let my body recuperate. Yes, I'm a wimp! I keep telling myself it'll be ok, I can eat well and work out tomorrow and I don't have to risk injuring myself.
The songs from an album I adore, by Guillemots. It's one of those rare albums where there are no filler songs and every one is a gem.
