eclaire (what's in a) name?

jessi highlighted the website stuff white people like in a recent blog post, and while i’ve been *meaning* to read it, i haven’t spent much time on the site. luckily, mike sent me the link to the website’s post about bottled water this morning.

when i clicked on the link, i had one hand on the mouse and the other wrapped around my metal sigg water bottle, full of filtered water that our office provides. i was about to take a large swig, but ended up uncontrollably laughing out loud at my desk. i immediately tried to muffle the laughter with a pretend cough so people in the surrounding cubes wouldn’t get suspicious that i was reading a funny blog, but it didn’t really work, and kind of sounded like a sneeze. (i only read blogs on my breaks, i swear!)

so anyways, if you need a good laugh you should check the blog out yourself – just make sure you do so before taking a swig of that filtered and/or bottled water, lest you end up spitting it all out of your mouth and nose as the unavoidable laughter ensues.

the long awaited part two is finally here. (i apologize again for the delay, life gets so busy!)

so, to catch you up to speed from part 1, i have a long and varied history with exercise. i primarily consider myself a swimmer, but i have been running for several years, mostly because mike likes to run and if i consent to run with him, he’ll swim with me.

i have always felt uncoordinated while running, and i get frustrated because i often have trouble setting a pace and catching my breath. it’s very easy for me just to give up and walk because really, who cares? who (besides mike) will notice if i’m a slacker on the treadmill? well, my friends, now the nike + will notice!

mike surprised me with this gift for christmas. it’s a two part gadget – one piece fits into an ipod nano and one piece fits into a nike shoe that is specially designed to hold it. when i saw the nike+ for the first time at the apple store in los gatos in early december, i wrote off the idea of ever being able to use it because nike shoes do not fit my flat and narrow feet very well. luckily, being married to mike means that there is always someone who will incessantly search the interwebs for frugal and reliable solutions for all gadget/electronic needs. he found an awesome sensor holder that fits onto the laces of any shoe, so i have one on my running shoes and one on my walking shoes that live at work.

when you’re about to begin your walk or run, you simply select the nike+ menu option on your nano, choose a time or distance goal and a playlist and go! the nike+ works like an advanced pedometer – it tracks your exercise time and distance. it also gives you a verbal time alert, like: “5 minutes complete” and “halfway done” and, in the last five minutes: “five minutes left” and “four minutes left” etc, etc. at the end of the workout, it will tell you how far you went, how much time you spent, average speed, and then if you did really well, it will tell you that your workout was a personal best. (the personal best messages are voiced by famous athletes like lance armstrong!)

when you plug your ipod into your computer to sync it, you are directed to the nike+ website, where you can view a visual of your run:

you can compare specific runs to your personal best run:

and, you can look back at all your previous runs or walks:

by registering with nike+, i also received some free treadmill playlists that coach you through interval running on a treadmill. i use intervals for motivation often while swimming, but had never thought to apply them to running.

with the combination of graphical outputs of each run, statistical analysis and comparison of different runs (i love stats!), time coaching/count downs, free playlists, and the possibility of lance armstrong congratulating me, i have had a major running breakthrough. i now find myself looking forward to the treadmill instead of bargaining with myself to just run 30 seconds more or trying to get out of going to the gym altogether. thanks, mike, apple and nike!!

thanks for the pic, bryan!!

we just got back from a fun trip to san diego, where we stayed in del mar with mike’s aunt and uncle, visited his grandmother, toured the city and hung out at the beach.

in case you’re interested, my pictures are up on flickr: em’s flickr pics

mike’s aunt betty captured pics from our trip, and she’s an extremely talented photographer so you should definitely check these out as well: betty’s flickr pics

as a vegetarian who dislikes eggs (when not baked in things) and dairy (except cheese and yogurt) and is married to a man who thoroughly enjoys fish, chicken, turkey and eats eggs for breakfast every day, i found this article in the new york times to be of particular interest: i love you, but you love meat.

mike was a vegetarian when i met him, but decided to start eating white meats and fish soon after we started dating. i respect mike’s eating choices, and i am lucky that he respects mine as well: we eat delicious vegetarian food at home, i love to make him eggs as long as i don’t have to eat them, and mike eats fish and chicken to his heart’s content when we dine out or when family members cook for us (being a vegetarian for almost two decades, i have no idea how to make meat dishes). it’s an interesting balance that works well as long as mike brushes his teeth after eating sushi and i don’t make dying bird noises when he eats chicken!