Sunday, October 25, 2015

Another Slow Morning Run

Day 2 of wake up & run.  It seems to be working - my brain isn't awake enough to negotiate reasons why I can't run yet.  The slower pace is making this much more manageable so I think I will stick with it for a while; I need to figure out how to work some speedwork into this - Not sure what the best idea is just yet.

Today's run was 1.25 miles in 17:52.  The first mile was done in 14:30, last quarter in 3:22. I've been keeping the treadmill at a 4 and increasing when I feel OK to.  If I get to run outside it's going to be hard to keep it slower so we will see what happens...

It's Sunday and I have a very crazy week ahead of me with prep for Halloween & an Open House we are hosting - Fingers crossed I can juggle it all!

Saturday, October 24, 2015

The Run After The Sickness

So I had to take a bit of an illness break.  Me & the kids all had some sort of wicked upper respiratory infection thingie, which for me triggers my asthma.  If I were to even try to run before my lungs were healed I would have gone into a full blown attack, and nobody wants that.  The first two weeks were because of illness 100%, this past week was schedule crazy - kids with half days, doctor appointments, madness.  I have to be better about leaving time for me to get runs in, so that's something I still need work on.

But for today's run I decided to take the advice of an article I read about how training too hard/fast might not be doing me any favors.  In the past, my average run speed on the treadmill was between a 5.5-7.0, depending on how ambitious I was feeling.  But I'm not there now, and I keep forgetting that.  This article said that for regular maintenance runs (which is all I'm doing because I'm not a real runner, I don't do long distances) I should be able to talk while running.  I should not be horribly out of breath or gasping for air, that the run should be rather easy on me and to save the hard stuff for speed training.  Apparently I wasn't doing this right.  All of my runs were leaving me completely out of breath & they were a struggle so today I decided to pull waaayyy back.  Even though my first few runs out there were already pulled back for my running norm, I pulled even further back.

Today I started at a 4.  That used to be a walking pace for me.  It's not anymore and that is sad, but I have to build up to that.  So I started at a 4 and actually felt really good about it.  I was able to breathe but I still felt like I was getting the exercise I need, sweat dripping, etc.  This was a straight out of bed morning run.  Like, I literally opened my eyes, drank some water and then headed down to the basement.  Didn't put on any running gear other than sneakers and ran in my PJ's.  Because I'm hardcore like that.  And after a bit of running at a 4 and waking up I increased to 4.2, 4.5, and then 5.  If you've been following along since the very beginning you know I like to end almost all of my runs with a quick dash and today was no exception.  I did the last 0.2 miles on 5.5.

I felt pretty good at the end - slightly winded from the final sprint, but I didn't feel defeated, which is how it has been.  I DO NOT like how long one simple mile took, but it wasn't agonizing.  My final time for 1 mile was 14:02.  Almost embarrassing - I think I ran my first ever mile much more quickly, but I guess I have to learn that I can't compare.

I hate that I fall off the running wagon so frequently so I'm going to try to be better - it's just really, really hard with the kids & their schedule but it is something I have to do.  So I turn to you - how do you stay on track?  What tools do you use to keep at it?

Monday, October 5, 2015

Jogging With The Jogger

This isn't pretty.

It's a gorgeous day out today so I lugged the jogging stroller up from the basement, wrapped The Boy in warm clothes & a blanket and took off running...er...jogging.  I cannot call this running because it was very slow & laborious.  This was a much different experience than running solo and my time shows that.  There is a learning curve here, I'm sure I'll get it but it's going to take some time.

This was only my second time out with a jogging stroller, the first time being the Strides For Survivors 5K Wifey & I did back in April, which was a beast.  So this is a double jogger and since The Girl is at school, only The Boy was with me, throwing the stroller out of balance.  So instead of being able to steer with one hand and keep the free hand in "running" mode, I had to keep 2 hands on the stroller at all times to avoid it veering off to the left.  Maybe half a mile into the run jog a muscle in my shoulder started to cramp from constantly re-directing & pulling to the one side, and did I mention that this thing isn't light?!

I have to say though, that The Boy did very well.  It was a much, much different experience with just him, not having the two of them fighting and pushing each other.  The weather was perfect for running, it was my best hour of the day (just before 10am) and The Boy loved seeing all the birds & squirrels running around doing their animal things.

 I took one of my old routes, which is about a mile and a half.  Once we got started and I saw that it was going to be slow, I figured I'd add some distance at least.  So when all was said & done, according to the MapMyRun report, I ran 1.47 miles in 17:26.  Average pace was 11:50, which was even longer than the time on the dreadmill the other day.  And a cool new thing I noticed, though I'm not so sure how "cool" I really feel exposing this but whatever...you can actually see the songs I listened to while running on the MapMyRun report within the app.  Super dorky.

So, it's going to take a while, but I'll find my groove with this thing.  Maybe it'll make me even faster when running solo?


Me & my new running buddy, post-run.

Sunday, October 4, 2015

Outside is Better

Yesterday Morning was Day 2 of being back at it & running again.  Since it wasn't actually raining out & Wifey was home I decided to get out there and give it a go.  I decided to follow a semi-new route that would make it 1 mile roundtrip (most of my usual routes are 2+ miles and I'm not up to that yet).  It starts similarly to pretty much ALL of my routes because I'm fairly limited but it takes a different, shorter turn.

Lord, I love running outside so, so, so much more than on the dreadmill!!  I'm just out of my "Summer is Over" funk and embracing Fall to the fullest, which is actually one of my favorite seasons despite the cold, and this run was chock full of Fall wonderland.  Colorful leaves all around my feet, that crisp-yet-damp-chill cutting the air, the smell of fireplaces & wood-burning stoves filling my lungs, no bugs to contend with...it was great.

And on top of that, I cut my dreadmill run time by over 1 full minute, further proving that the treadmill actually hurts my performance.  So I'm going to try to run outside as much as possible.  I'm obviously going to be limited by rain & the Boy child but if I can make it work I will.

According to the MapMyRun report, I ran 1.01 miles in 10:27 so I'm getting there!  Not in as bad of shape as I thought, or as the treadmill was telling me, so there is hope!  LOL.

I'm taking today off because I just don't have time for a run but I'll be back at it on Monday so I'll check back then.


Friday, October 2, 2015

Back At It

It's that time of year again...time for me to register for a race & then be completely unprepared, having not run in months; not since the last 5K I was wholly unprepared for. 

Not this time.

This time I will do better!  This time I will prepare!  This time I will put up a better time than 38 minutes!!!  (And since my last race involved a double stroller and keeping the same pace as wifey uphill, I think I have a decent shot!)

So it started today.  Since it's rainy & gross out I took a lap on the dreadmill in the basement while I had the boy set up in front of the electronic babysitter.  (I don't feel bad about this anymore - he's older & even if I run a whole 5K, my absolute worst time was 39 minutes).  I want to ease into this so as not to be in a huge amount of pain in 2 days and so that I can gradually work up my times.  So I did 1 mile in 11:34. Not great, but it's 1 mile down, hopefully the first in a series of regular running days.

So I've registered again for the Race For The Hungry Holiday 5K here in Burlington (click here if you want to join me!) and LMG is running it again with me so that will be fun :)  My goals are fairly simple.
  1. Finish without incident or dying
  2. Run the entire 5K without walking
  3. Finish in under 35 minutes (I might make this a shorter time as my training continues & I get faster, but for now, 35 minutes seems reasonable).
Here goes nothing!