Not all content suitable for the faint of heart, the young, or male. Read at your own discretion.
Monday: 3 Miles (31.20--10.18/10.28/10.33)
Running: Good
Feet: Good (for 2.5 miles--muscled through the last .5)
Attitude: Pretty Great! Today's run was fantastic, even though it was at the gym!
Running Philosophy: Run/Walk--Ohh, you've never heard of this one? Well, it's a miracle for people like me who can't run continually for long distances and who are very refreshed from a brief walk. Today, I ran for a full mile and then walked to recover for 1 minute. As you can tell, it didn't affect my time seriously. I actually think that might have had a slightly better time because of it.
The Run/Walk practice was started by a man named Jeff Galloway and it has helped many people who were not able to run long distances very fast to accomplish more by working in brief periods of walking into their run. This allows the body to recuperate and replenish a bit before the next amount of strenuous activity. In training for a long run, someone who wants to run 10 minute miles would run for 3 minutes and walk for 1. I find this a bit excessive, especially since I can run a couple miles fairly well. But I like the idea of a break, both physically and mentally. And after I have had a very brief break (I am really not able to do most runs without one) I run stronger, faster, and more fluidly. It just feels better. But we'll see. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding.
Oh, and I have a very skeptical running partner who wants to RUN a marathon (to which I responded, well, you run, I will complete it in my goal time and feel better than you!). Eric is very skeptical that you can walk as part of a run and not lose significant time. And I think that he kinda views regular walk breaks as quitting or failure. I have no such illusions. In my view it allows me to complete and feel great success. My goal is completing a marathon, not running one. I hope over the next few weeks to show him that this works for me and it will enable me to my goal time of 4:30 (during which I would have run for four hours and walked for 26 minutes--I think that qualifies as running). Did I mention my running partner is skeptical? Just wanted to make sure you knew that!
Tuesday--3 miles (0.00.00)
Yeah, today was a bad, bad, BAD. I woke up crabby and it didn't get better. I was supposed to run first thing in the morning with Eric, but that didn't happen. Then I thought that I would run later in the day--so I made sure to fuel up with great runner's food: two yesterdogs, chips, and a pop (K's choice--it was her lunch date with mommy). After feeling sufficiently crabby, I was slightly looking forward to a run with Eric after he returned home from work, BUT we had a bit of a non-communication and that didn't happen. So essentially, I didn't run today.
But if I had to be completely honest. I didn't want to. It sounded like unpleasant, inconvenient, hard work. And it was not appealing. I was already tired from a couple nights of broken sleep thanks to not-sleeping-well-children and then there were some unexpected hormonal challenges that popped up to make me more anxious, crabby and irrational. All this combined in ugly form to prevent me from running.
To this point in my life, I have never used hormones and PMS as an excuse for things--maybe my temper would flare up, but I would accept responsibility for that and do my best to avoid aggravating situations or control my emotions. However, the reality that I was knocked on my butt by testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone, makes me say to myself, "Am I getting that old? Is this going to happen through the next few months? How do I deal with this yet give myself the grace to not?" Arrggh, sometimes these things are frustrating and unresolvable. Maybe tomorrow will be better.
Wednesday--3 miles (30.24--10.10/10.04/10.10)
Did you read those numbers? Go back and read them again. Did you catch what they said? Nope, well, let me spell it out for you--I cut 1 minute off my run time on a day that I felt slow, sluggish and completely unmotivated. My feet hurt because I had been wearing my running shoes all day and I was/am tired. But I ran faster! How? Well, I walked--a total of two minutes in there--one minute after mile one and one minute after mile two! I didn't lose a ton of seconds from lap to lap. And after I was done, although I had worked hard and kept up a tough pace, especially during the 2nd mile, I felt okay--not fall on my back or lean over to catch my breath tired, but okay--spent and worn, but okay.
I am definitely buying into this whole run/walk thing. It works for me (sorta like H**ked on Ph*nics!).
And while I don't think that he can admit it yet, I think Eric may be warming to this idea, especially since I am excited and think that it works for me. I kinda wonder if it helped him run a quick last mile--even though he is still catching up from a night of work a couple days ago. He said that he was pleased (read: surprised) at the time he came up with.
Friday--8 miles (1:27:16)
What? Did I hear that correctly? Did my running partner say "thank you" for the walk breaks today? Because I am pretty sure that's what I heard--and am relishing in it. I think I'll make a believer out of him after all!
So this morning, we got up and ran 8 miles--well, we ran for 10 minutes and walked for one. There were two untimed drink/potty breaks (at the library, not the woods). You know this was a big one for me because not only did I go my farthest distance, but I also did another first--I ran without my ipod. The whole time. Eric and I actually talked some and concentrated at other times. You know what, it wasn't that bad. There were times when I am pretty sure that I could have used some music as motivation, some extra beat to push us along, but all in all, it was okay.
Also two things to note. The pace we had today was essentially the same as last Saturday's 10K pace, but I didn't hate today's run nor did I want to collapse when I finished. I had a couple little aches, but all in all, it was good. I am pleased with our time and although there are times when I felt we were plodding a little, there were also times when we picked up the pace, especially towards the end when Eric really wanted to be done.
Secondly, I must give HUGE props to Eric for this run. He didn't want to go. He didn't even want to get out of bed this morning. He definitely wanted to quit early and cut a couple miles out. He didn't want to speed up. But he did, the whole time. And he is a trooper. Thanks sweetie. I am proud of you for today. You see, Eric has done a couple of overnight cases this week and has not had enough time to recuperate from the lack of sleep, so it was a pretty tired Eric who dragged his butt out of bed this morning to join me.
Finally, I am wondering how much attention to pay to little aches and pains. Part of the reason that I have my ipod when I run is because I have this terrible habit of thinking a bad thing too long--i.e. the ache in my shin is a shin splint and it's going to turn into a stress fracture and I am not going to be able to run or I feel an ache in my Achilles, it's going to pop and then I'll be off my feet for months. You know, unhealthy obsession and worry. But I started to have aches which I figure is just the result of hard work but am nervous become something worse. So what do I do? Where do I find information? Ack! Too many questions, few trustworthy answers.
Week Total--14 miles (Honestly, we're all screwed up because of the holiday--but at least the long run got in! Seriously, only two miles short. Next week 18 miles!)
1 comment:
Just wanted to jump in for a moment and say that even on the days you don't get in as much running as you wish you could, or that you felt sluggish, or whatever . . . I'm finding it all quite inspiring. I wish I had the energy at the moment to take a run around the block, though I'd settle for a run around my house! Anyway, good job. I know it must be a tough thing to commit to, but I know you can do it!
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