It looks like my gold membership for diaryland ran out. I was only keeping it because I wanted to have comments on my entries. I think I am finally going to leave diaryland. Of course, I�ll continue to link to my new place as long as I�m able. It just doesn�t make any sense to me to pour money into something that�s beyond a sinking ship. It�s sunk. Only the tip of the mast is poking out of the water here. Andrew, I would feel sorry for you if I believed that you actually existed.

Anyway, back to my life.

I�ve been seeing an acupuncturist to help improve my energy level. When I started doing regular reiki work, my energy level plummeted. I was pouring out the goods to my clients, but doing it all wrong. Rather than channeling, I was giving mine away, which is not sustainable. After my first treatment at the acupuncturist, I felt different. During the following week, I felt more energetic, but still a bit run-down.

I had a second appointment yesterday. He did moxibustion on me, which I liked quite a bit. The heat was intense, but oddly comforting. Afterwards, I felt dazed and then exhausted when I got home. I slept for a few hours in the afternoon, and then went to bed at my usual time and slept soundly all night.

This morning, I woke up feeling more refreshed than I have in months.

During the past few months, I�ve been doing a lot of strength training, but very little cardio. It seems like I�ve been putting on a lot of muscle. I have no objective way to measure this, but my muscles feel firmer to me, and I believe that I�m generally looking much more toned. However, I don�t think I�ve lost any fat.

I�ve complained to Adam about this from time to time, and his response has been to tell me to increase my cardio. I guess that would be from zero to some. Normally, I like cardio a lot, and I�ve spoken about my love of Zumba before. Since my energy level dropped, I just haven�t felt like it.

It was Thursday night when I trained with Adam a little bit for Ultimate. This is finals weekend for his club tournament, and he wanted to practice. We did a few agility drills and some interval training. It was intensive-ish, but it still fell short of a workout, for me. The fact that I was willing to even do that little bit shows that my energy level was improving. This was after doing reiki all morning, too.

Anyway, back to this morning. I woke up refreshed and my energy level was much higher than it had been in a while. I decided to revisit the couch-to-5K training program. I�ve never done it, but I�ve always liked the idea of it. I�m a terrible runner, and I�m an especially bad long distance runner. I�ve always wanted to improve in this area. So, I downloaded an mp3 made by a guy named Robert, who recorded himself coaching the program. I put it on my ipod and I went off to a nearby park.

There are two parks within walking distance of my house. Well, they�re not so much parks as softball/soccer fields, but they�re usable. At least that�s true in the morning before too many people come out. The down side is that it�s boring as hell running around a soccer field, plus there�s pollution, dog walkers, other recreational athletes and gawkers.

There are the trails where I used to run, but I�ve become too paranoid to run there, anymore. Well, it�s more that a couple of rapes were reported and all of the women stopped running there. I went back a few times afterwards, but it�s disconcerting for me to run there and never ever see another woman running alone on the trails. Talk about making oneself a target. Not only that, but a friend of mine who fought in Iraq actually said to me, �Oh, I never go on those trails alone. It�s far too risky.� Ooookay.

There�s another park with trails that is safer, but that�s a 45 minute drive from me.

So, anyway, given the limitation on my options, I don�t know how long I�ll keep this up. It should also be noted that I have no intention of ever running a 5K. It�s more just something for me to do that mixes up my usual routine.

The program itself seems to be fitting of my current fitness level. Since it�s actually called �couch-to-5K,� I thought it might be too easy. The first couple of intervals, I felt like I could have run longer and my intensity was pretty high. Around the third and fourth intervals, I started thinking, �Ok, this sucks.� Around the fifth or sixth interval, sweat started running into my eyes, and I realized that I�d forgotten my sweatband, dammit. I think it was around the eighth interval when I started contemplating cutting my training short, but then Robert said, �You�re almost done!� I spent the next couple of intervals trying to figure out whether or not he was lying about being almost done, and it turns out that he wasn�t.

Also, during this time, I found my form. I noticed it when I was interval training with Adam on Thursday. When I was a kid, I had been a decent runner, even pretty fast (I�m built like a spider, long limbs and a tiny round torso). As an adult, my form has been inefficient and it always felt awkward. Thursday, while running sprints with Adam, the human being�s natural ability to run decently came back to me. Afterwards, Adam commented, �Wow, you�ve gotten so fast!� I�m sure my power hasn�t increased, at all, I just somehow figured out how to run right.

Anyway, today, for my last interval, I sprinted the first forty seconds of the remaining sixty seconds because he told me to give it my all. The last twenty seconds� well, never mind.

In the end, I felt worked out but not over-extended. I think the humidity increased the challenge of it, but at least it wasn�t hot.

It�s a new thing, too, and if there�s one thing I like, it�s a new thing to do. I also did get a slight endorphin rush somewhere in there, but the newness of the program distracted me from it.

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