Are you in the market for fitness equipment?

If so, make sure to read this article. As many of us suspected, those very expensive and often bulky gadgets are not more effective than the old-fashioned (and much cheaper!) exercises we're familiar with. Don't get me wrong - there's a time and place for treadmills and the like. When the weather is terrible or it's too dark to run outside then running indoors is great. Some, like the article states, enjoy having a machine in front of them tracking their progress. I take care of that by wearing my GPS heart-rate monitor.

In my opinion, exercise equipment rates right up there with gym memberships. If you can commit and use the stuff, then it's worth the cash. If not, don't bother. Save your money for something else.

Training is slightly derailed but still happening

I was too busy to run Saturday, so I planned on running Sunday. Too bad I didn't bother to check the weather because it not only rained Saturday night but all day Sunday and a good part of today. Oh well. I will run tomorrow, and then it looks like Thursday is a wash. I've got an appointment with someone from school after work, and I'm not sure how long it will take. This shouldn't surprise anyone who works with me, but I am looking for a new job. With school wrapping up in 4 weeks and my eyes on a career that can't be advanced at my current company, it's time to start the good ol' job hunt. Career Services from Keller is helping me find something. Any help is good!

Anyway, it looks like I'll be able to keep up some semblance of running this week which is good. I'm planning on running after class Saturday, but if that doesn't work I'll go Sunday. My runs so far feel pretty good, and I feel like I'm making decent progress. I've quit focusing on trying to run the whole time I'm outside training, so a lot of pressure is off now. I'm okay if I have to walk some of the half marathon too. The goal is to finish!

Funny side note

So I was poking around my blog because I was bored, and I noticed a tab called Stats. Included in the stats are what countries readers are in (hi Russia, Ukraine, and Malaysia!), how many views your blog has received, which posts are the most read and which google searches bring up your blog. There are a lot of other things too, but those caught my attention. The most interesting section was what was deemed my most popular post. Can you guess what it was? My armpit hurts! LOL!!! I guess I ought to write more silly posts about how I hurt myself doing stupid every day tasks.

Why am I bored? I'm trying to work on a project for class. In fact, it's my FINAL project that is broken up into three sections. It's a fascinating project (opening an offshore manufacturing facility in Malaysia), but I'm having a hard time focusing. I can't think about writing RFPs and choosing vendors right now.

Anyhoo, I thought you all would find that funny. Maybe I'll hurt something else that sounds just as silly as my arm pit =)

2 Miles!

I decided to take advantage of my renewed motivation and extend my mileage today. Instead of my usual 1.5 miles of walk/run I did 2 full miles. I feel pretty good, and I think I'm on track to being able to handle 4-5 miles by the end of the year. I'm still getting the half-marathon training plan in my email, so I'm getting a good look at what kind of training I will need to do next year.

On another note, I saw a guy on the trail with no shoes on. I just don't get it. Isn't the ground nasty? I can't help but think of all the icky stuff we step on with our shoes on. All of that might get into your skin! EWW!! I hope he had a recent tetanus shot. Never mind the fact that this poor guy obviously can't tan so his legs and feet were like rods of glowing white light. Rough!

Missed training

Due to school work that had to get done and a migraine that decided to rear its ugly head, I didn't train at all Thursday evening or Saturday. But that's okay! I might go today, but if I don't I'll pick right up on Tuesday.

So my friends and I are already making plans for next year's Warrior Dash! Now that we have a better idea of what the course is like, the need for showers after the race, and the kind of trip involved, we're making much better plans this time around. Most of us look like we're getting hotel rooms for at least the night before so we can shower all the mud off after the race. Plus this saves us travel time that morning since we're looking at a 9am race time. It's gonna be awesome!!