Sunday, January 25, 2009

My Run Today

Today I was blessed to run with my boyfriend Chanh! He hasn't ran in months so I figured it would be an easy run but it wasn't because the weather was against us. When we checked weather.com the weather was 8 degrees, feels like -5. But we ran anyway. We planned on only running 2 miles (because of his hiatus and the fact that I ran 3 on Friday) but we kind of got lost around the neighborhood so we ending up running 2 1/2. Towards the end of the run, things got hard. I think it was because I started off fast so it was hard to keep that pace. I don't think I dressed warm enough because my shirt was riding up and after the run I had a red mark on my belly. I think it was from the wind and cold even though my overcoat/windbreaker covered my tummy. That's how cold it was! It was no joke!!









I wore the following: two pairs of pants, cotton yoga pants and windbreaker pants, two shirts, a running t-shirt and a longer cotton shirt, big snowboarding gloves, a neck protector, and a sweat resistant cap.



























Chanh wore running tights underneath some cotton workout pants. He was wearing 1 long-sleeved cotton shirt and then the windbreaker. He also wore a great warm, sweat-wicking cap. Can you tell he loves Nike??

















Here is the front of our apartment building with all the snow.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Running and Shunning

Like many other highly dedicated runners do, I've decided to start running at work so I do not have to run at night when I get home at about 6pm. I have been doing it for about two weeks now and I have to say that it's pretty fun. Of course, there are some downfalls; I have to change twice, I eat my food at my desk, but mainly the sidewalks are not shoveled around my work so I have to run on the road (as runners are encouraged to do anyway by running communities). The problem is that my work is located in an industrial park where the surrounding streets are heavily used and have high speed limits. So I just run up and down the hill in front of my building. This hill looks low when I'm sitting at my desk or even at the bottom of the hill. But once I start running up the hill, its is obvious that the hill is steep. I tried to take some pictures of my weekly run. See below. The captions for the pictures are below the pictures.





This is the road in front of my work. Again, you can't really see the hill part from the bottom.






This is the top of the hill where it flattens out. Can you tell that it looks like it drops off?




I run by this area everyday. This is my idea of what it looks like as the icebergs melt. They're all dirty and the ocean is dark, dirty, and cracking.




Now this post was intended to be about my latest running exploit at work. However, since I had my camera with me when I went to Planned Parenthood to get my last month of birth control from them (thank you insurance), I figured that I would take a picture of the crazy people that stand in front of the building to yell at the patients. This is an attempt to show everybody what women and girls in Aurora have to go through to protect themselves from being pregnant at the wrong time in their lives. These people really annoy me. They are protesting abortion but the funny thing is the abortion services weren't even open when I went to the clinic. So they were protesting my supply of birth control. I have thought of so many things to say and do to them but then I realized that it would be in vain. They would still come. Nothing would change their mind because they mindlessly do these things without an independent thought in their head. See the robots below.




I thought this picture was ironic. These people are standing out there with their rosary beads so they are obviously Catholic. The third person from the left is wearing a blanket with a pattern on it that resembles a Native American pattern. The irony is that Catholicism had a big hand in civilizing the American Indian. They had schools for all the savage Indian children where the children weren't allowed to speak in their native tongue, sing their native songs, or even see their parents. Now they are civilizing all of America. They're on a rampage!






I stopped my car in front of them and took a pic just to piss them off. It looked like it worked. Dummies. Revenge is sweet.


But not sweet enough. I think I will try to volunteer at Planned Parenthood. I will sit out in the cold. But I will be in front of the building, and not on the side of the road. I will talk to the patients. But just so they can't hear the protesters. I will hand things to the patients. But just so they know the clinic's hours of operation. I will win.