I did my first run in two weeks today. I wanted to make sure that my knees were fully functional before I started abusing them again. I have been able to walk down stairs without pain for the past few days, so I took that as a sign that I was ready to run.
Today also signals my first day on the official training schedule for the Austin Half Marathon in February. I have entered the entire training schedule into my Google calendar. Now the only hard part is sticking to it. I am contemplating posting an ad for a running partner in Sackville, but then what if someone terrible responds, and I am stuck for hours on end with this person. This would be much easier if Jenni were here.
The run today was rather painless. I am always surprised that running seems easiest when I start again after taking a couple weeks off. Today's training schedule called for 4 miles plus drills. I did the 4 miles half on the road and half in trails, and only had problems toward the end where the trail narrowed and the trees were close enough for spider webs to connect them. Fortunately it was early in the morning, so no one was around to see me flailing about after each spiderweb encounter like I was having a seizure. After the first two spider webs and the subsequent freak outs, I took to swimming through the air to knock the spiderwebs down with my arms before my face got to them. I am not sure which looked more silly.
My run ended at the high school across from my house, which conveniently has a very steep hill, and a parking lot on which to do drills without people driving on Main street seeing me. I skipped, and ran back wards and did jumping jacks and did the grapevine both on flat ground and up the hill. It sucked, but I did it!
Distance: 4 miles on pavement and trails
Number of stars:4.5
Lessons learned: I really like running :)
Song that rocked my run: Nothing in particular. I was mostly just enjoying the view.
Showing posts with label goals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label goals. Show all posts
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Terry Fox Run
Today was the Terry Fox run across the Confederation Bridge that I have been sorta training for since I got to Sackville. I was running in memory of my paternal grandparents, both of whom were had cancer. I took an old picture of them that my aunt had digitized and attached it to my shirts.
I wanted to have shirts made with the picture on it, but I couldn't find anywhere around here that did such things. I printed out one picture just on paper and put it on the back of my long sleeved shirt.
And then I took a smaller version of the picture, laminated it with tape and attached it to the front of my short sleeved shirt:
The goal of the Terry Fox run is to raise money for cancer research, and thanks to my awesome donors, I raised $560 for the run. Thanks everyone!
I am too sleepy now to write about the actual run, so I will finish this tomorrow.
I wanted to have shirts made with the picture on it, but I couldn't find anywhere around here that did such things. I printed out one picture just on paper and put it on the back of my long sleeved shirt.
And then I took a smaller version of the picture, laminated it with tape and attached it to the front of my short sleeved shirt:
The goal of the Terry Fox run is to raise money for cancer research, and thanks to my awesome donors, I raised $560 for the run. Thanks everyone!
I am too sleepy now to write about the actual run, so I will finish this tomorrow.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
The good, the bad, the unpretty: a confessional post.
1.) I checked outside at 10:30am and it wasn't that hot; I was terribly mistaken; 3 minutes into my run I was sweating so much that it was dripping down my face into my eyes and mouth.
2.) I went to bed early last night so that I could get up early and run; I went to bed early last night after drinking beers with friends from 4-8pm; Not only did I not run early, but I ran dehydrated.
3.) I ran 5 miles; I only continued the last mile because I was one mile from home; I kept the timer and gps running the entire time.
4.) I wore my Ragnar technical t-shirt and it made me happy; I should have worn a tank top; In one of the back neighborhoods I took my shirt off to wipe up all the sweat dripping off my face and then put it back on.
5.) Mueller park is beautiful to run in; I walked most of the "running" minutes in Mueller park; Two little kids and an old man passed me up.
6.) I was running with 24 oz of cytomax and water; I drank it all before mile 3; I was spitting like a maniac after mile 3.
7.) I went running despite my arms being very sore from boot camp; I hold my arms very high snd stiff when I run; My arms might be even more sore now!
8.) There were lots of friendly people out and about; Except for the few who were unfriendly; And that one guy who was holding a chain saw that was switched on and wasn't looking around the sidewalk he was on.
9.) I ran 5 miles (did I already say that); I'm running 6.5 in a week; Two of my friends are counting on me to not suck at it.
10.) I hit all my marks during the first mile and a half; I missed every one after that; The misses were much more significant than the hits.
Distance: 5.02 miles
Time: 65:02:29
Mad props to: The neighbors who were shamelessly watering their yard during water restrictions; Because I ran through the sprinklers; both ways!
Song that rocked my run: Womanizer, by Britney Spears.
aw, what the hell - I said it was confessional. Womanizer, by Britney Spears totally rocked my run (and does most runs). I run best when I'm angry, and I can easily find 5 minutes of Womanizer moments to power me through thanks to Brit and her song!!
Friday, July 9, 2010
run, thwarted.
Yesterday I realized that the Metro Tri is a week from Sunday. That's 9 days, if you count today. And celebrations of last week kept me from running, I began getting nervous. I laid out an intricate plan to LD yesterday.
Friday am - 4 miles
Sunday am - 6 miles
Monday am - boot camp
Tuesday am - boot camp
Wednesday am - 5 miles
Thursday am - bootcamp
See, the care that went in to that planning. It'll get me ready for a 10K in 9 days - and also for a nap! In fact, I think I need one just looking at that. I'll sleep on the plane on Friday for sure.
Turns out, I'm already behind schedule. Her Highness woke me up this morning at 4am whining. This is not a new development, and I believe it's an actual problem which I will explain elsewhere, but it was 4am and I was awake to feed my master. OH LORD. When I stood up, I could count the muscles in my butt. Because every last one of them hurt. When I reached up on the shelf to get Mia's food - I could also feel every single aching muscle in my arms and shoulders. There was no way I was going to make it 4 miles. I wasn't sure I would get myself back in to bed.
Luckily, for all involved, I did make it back to bed, and opted to sleep a little later. I woke up and tried (painfully) to stretch - and resorted to the Stick for a little muscle relief. My legs feel fine now, ohhh boy my arms and shoulders are screaming. I might be able to pull out a four mile run later this evening, especially if it rains! Otherwise, I'm behind before I've even begun.
Friday am - 4 miles
Sunday am - 6 miles
Monday am - boot camp
Tuesday am - boot camp
Wednesday am - 5 miles
Thursday am - bootcamp
See, the care that went in to that planning. It'll get me ready for a 10K in 9 days - and also for a nap! In fact, I think I need one just looking at that. I'll sleep on the plane on Friday for sure.
Turns out, I'm already behind schedule. Her Highness woke me up this morning at 4am whining. This is not a new development, and I believe it's an actual problem which I will explain elsewhere, but it was 4am and I was awake to feed my master. OH LORD. When I stood up, I could count the muscles in my butt. Because every last one of them hurt. When I reached up on the shelf to get Mia's food - I could also feel every single aching muscle in my arms and shoulders. There was no way I was going to make it 4 miles. I wasn't sure I would get myself back in to bed.
Luckily, for all involved, I did make it back to bed, and opted to sleep a little later. I woke up and tried (painfully) to stretch - and resorted to the Stick for a little muscle relief. My legs feel fine now, ohhh boy my arms and shoulders are screaming. I might be able to pull out a four mile run later this evening, especially if it rains! Otherwise, I'm behind before I've even begun.
Monday, June 28, 2010
speedy, not-so-speedy
I'm a slow runner, mostly by choice, partly because I'm not good enough to go faster. I've said it before, when I started running it was a complete shock to me, and I never thought I'd be any good. Lately I've been seriously toying with the idea of running a full marathon - which is something I never thought I could or would want to do. (Nanio, are we still planning for the Austin full in Feb?! I kinda am...but not alone!)
In reading up and thinking about this full marathon thing, I've decided that I really need to become faster. My reasons for this is two-fold. First, a full marathon at my speed would probably take me something like 5.5 or 6 hours to finish. That's a long time. That's a lot of singing bad songs loudly. That's just...more than I care to do. Faster means, less time spent running, less time distracting myself with mental long division problems (yes, I do this). Second, I think if I work on getting faster, I will become more efficient. Which means, it will be easier to tack on the miles. At this point I feel confident in my ability to make the distance (a half, no problem - a full with a bunch more long runs, sure). But really, how will I feel when it's all done. So I'm going to try and use this summer to improve my speed and efficiency. Which, hopefully, will just make things easier for me in the long run.
I was off on the 1 minute walks because I forgot I was supposed to be doing that at my 12 min/mile pace and the 14 one was a pre-programmed button I could easily press. It was tough, but I was mostly impressed with my ability to stick with the 3 minutes and inclines. I'm generally a wuss about this. Additionally I was impressed with my warm-up, I really only slowed down twice, the first time to adjust my bra straps (I do not wear a jane strap, and the straps somehow had slipped too long - disaster!) The second time was because I was tired. But normally I run 5/1's, so getting through the near 20 minutes was an accomplishment in itself. (I only went 19 because I was just silly and read the clock wrong - I was eager to get going I guess).
Tracking time and distance seems silly for this, because we can all do math - I was on the treadmill at set speeds for set times, the distance/time is uninformative. However, the statistic I like now is Heart Rate. Here we go:
Heart Rate before intervals: 138
Max heart rate: 158 *questionably around than 80% of the max for a person of my advancing age.
Heart Rate after Cool Down: 116
In reading up and thinking about this full marathon thing, I've decided that I really need to become faster. My reasons for this is two-fold. First, a full marathon at my speed would probably take me something like 5.5 or 6 hours to finish. That's a long time. That's a lot of singing bad songs loudly. That's just...more than I care to do. Faster means, less time spent running, less time distracting myself with mental long division problems (yes, I do this). Second, I think if I work on getting faster, I will become more efficient. Which means, it will be easier to tack on the miles. At this point I feel confident in my ability to make the distance (a half, no problem - a full with a bunch more long runs, sure). But really, how will I feel when it's all done. So I'm going to try and use this summer to improve my speed and efficiency. Which, hopefully, will just make things easier for me in the long run.
| Today's Plan: | What I actually did: |
| 20 minute warm up at 12 min/mile at 0% incline | a total of 19 minute warm up switching twice between 14 and 12 min/mile at 0% incline |
| 3 minutes at 10.0 min/mile at 0% incline | 3 minutes at 10.5 min/mile at 0% incline |
| 1 minutes at 12 min/mile at 0% incline | 1 minutes at 14 min/mile at 0% incline |
| 3 minutes at 10.0 min/mile at 1% incline | 3 minutes at 10.0 min/mile at 1% incline |
| 1 minutes at 12 min/mile at 1% incline | 1 minutes at 14 min/mile at 1% incline |
| 3 minutes at 10.0 min/mile at 2% incline | 3 minutes at 10.5 min/mile at 2% incline |
| 1 minutes at 12 min/mile at 2% incline | 1 minutes at 14 min/mile at 2% incline |
| 3 minutes at 10.0 min/mile at 0% incline | 3 minutes at 10.0 min/mile at 0% incline |
| 1 minutes at 12 min/mile at 0% incline | 1 minutes at 14 min/mile at 0% incline |
| Cool Down | Cool Down |
I was off on the 1 minute walks because I forgot I was supposed to be doing that at my 12 min/mile pace and the 14 one was a pre-programmed button I could easily press. It was tough, but I was mostly impressed with my ability to stick with the 3 minutes and inclines. I'm generally a wuss about this. Additionally I was impressed with my warm-up, I really only slowed down twice, the first time to adjust my bra straps (I do not wear a jane strap, and the straps somehow had slipped too long - disaster!) The second time was because I was tired. But normally I run 5/1's, so getting through the near 20 minutes was an accomplishment in itself. (I only went 19 because I was just silly and read the clock wrong - I was eager to get going I guess).
Tracking time and distance seems silly for this, because we can all do math - I was on the treadmill at set speeds for set times, the distance/time is uninformative. However, the statistic I like now is Heart Rate. Here we go:
Heart Rate before intervals: 138
Max heart rate: 158 *questionably around than 80% of the max for a person of my advancing age.
Heart Rate after Cool Down: 116
A promise
Here is it, my stuff for the treadmill today! I went for an outdoor run yesterday, and it was alright. it was hot, and I was slow. Today we're going to go inside - which I've decided is better than not going.
Yesterday I agreed to do a race, and it's coming up really soon. All the pieces haven't fallen quite into place yet, and when they do it certainly deserves it's own post. But this may just be the wake up call I needed.
This week's goal: tempo work on the treadmill. As much as I hate (hate hate hate) running on a treadmill I am really terrible at pacing myself. LDH can attest to that, I have two speeds - running and walking. I'm not very consistent, nor am I able to tell if I'm starting too fast (which means I generally start too fast). If I can't have LDH to set me straight, the treadmill will have to do. Now to search for some good articles and training plans on how to actually do that!
Yesterday I agreed to do a race, and it's coming up really soon. All the pieces haven't fallen quite into place yet, and when they do it certainly deserves it's own post. But this may just be the wake up call I needed.
This week's goal: tempo work on the treadmill. As much as I hate (hate hate hate) running on a treadmill I am really terrible at pacing myself. LDH can attest to that, I have two speeds - running and walking. I'm not very consistent, nor am I able to tell if I'm starting too fast (which means I generally start too fast). If I can't have LDH to set me straight, the treadmill will have to do. Now to search for some good articles and training plans on how to actually do that!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)