Alert, Alert: Sensor Battery Low

Yes, my iPod sensor has low batteries and I have to buy another one. This is both good and bad.
It is good because it means that I have run enough since getting my Nike+it has wore out its batteries. Which is kind of awesome!
I first got my Nike+ about 2 years ago. I loved it from the start. The great thing about it is that it tracks how many miles you've gone.
Before your run, you tell it what your goal is for that run. You can have a time goal, a calorie goal, and, my personal fav, a mileage goal. I don't really know what it is like for the other goal types, but the mile goal gives you feedback as you go. A nice little voice will butt into your music and say, "Halfway point," or "400 meters to go!" Its awesome for inspiration! I don't know how many times I've opened up my stride when it says that I have 400 meters to go.
Another cool thing about the Nike+ is that it gives you a summary of your run: miles completed, time, calories, and pace. And if you're really good, Lance Armstrong will tell you that you did a great job. How cool is that?!
The bad part about my low battery is that I have to buy another one, of course! It is making me think whether I really want to continue this affair with the Nike+. I know that I can get the watch or another brand that sensors your run, but I'm not sure if I can find a cheap one that interrupts your music like the Nike+. I know that Apple has a monopoly on their accessories so I think this will be pretty hard.
Either way, I can't imagine running without something to tell me how I am doing or how long I've run. I know that for hundreds of years, people have been running without a Nike +.....but my question is how?!? I may find out if my battery runs out before I get a chance to buy a new one.
I am going to North Carolina this weekend to see my mom and my BFF's sister (her biking blog is http://letsgorideabike.wordpress.com/) so expect to see a blog or two about running in warm, humid weather, in the country where people look at runners funny. "Wuts she running frum?!"<--- in my best country voice.

Love and Running

For Valentine's Day, C and I stayed in hotel Softiel which is practically in the city. Naturally, I needed to fit in a run. Softiel has an awesome gym. Saturday, I spent 20 minutes in the sauna. It was so sweet! It may seem weird, but it takes me longer to get cold now that I've spent that time in the sauna. Its like I got the chill out of me.

Dull, but warm.

I am not yet brave enough to run in foreign areas alone. I know its a great way to explore new places and that running outside is better on the universe. But I am really paranoid. What if I accidentally run into the ghetto part of town, and someone hears me say "Picture me rollin'" in my best Tupac voice, and then, BAM! I'm abducted or in the least, my run is stopped. I just can't yet. But one day.

So I ran on the treadmill. And I was actually excited about it. I knew this run would be different.

Last time I ran on a treadmill was at the Holiday Inn in Ottawa: they didn't have a TV, my ipod was dead, and the treadmill faced a wall in which only an empty water cooler stood. Not even a picture!!
But the Softiel, no, the gym was on the top floor. Its only 10 stories, but still! the top floor! It was a great view.




mmm...here it looks like the view is mostly the top of a parking garage. But you can see pretty far, honest.

But I have to admit, I only looked at the view for a 1/2 mile because there was a TV on the treadmill!!!! So I indulged myself with celebrity gossip.




Evil TV treadmills........

Nonetheless, it was a great run. It was a little harder than I expected. There is an ongoing debate about whether it is harder on the treadmill or outside. Some say its easier on the t-mill because there is no wind or hills. While other say it is easier outside because you can set and change the pace.

I feel that it is definitely easier outside. Whenever I'm on a machine, I am always watching my time and distance. I feel like I've been running forever. Outside, I watch the yards and the cars and I look for squirrels. It's grrreat. I forget what I'm doing. I finish my run feeling energetic and, sometimes, I'm ready for more.

Either way, it's another run under my belt. The downfall: Pool Closed. We did get to swim in it Saturday, but I really wanted to after my run. I figured a nice swim would be good on the knees.

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.

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.