Running Stream of Consciousness

Ok, let's DO this!!  Ooh, Abba!  I love Abba!  This reminds me of Liz!  Liz will be running with me next week, that's going to be so much fun, I love running with Liz!  La-la-la, I got this, I can do this.  When I'm done with this I have to be quick because I have to take the kids's Christmas Card pictures before we go visit Santa.  Got it.  I'll be done running in under 30 minutes, half an hour to get myself ready, should be no problem.  That was really good cheesecake last night.  I shouldn't have eaten that.  I should run faster.  Let's go faster.  Ok, not that bad, I can handle this.  Yes, Divine Miss. M., I AM beautiful, damn it!!  Cheesecake and all!!  These earbuds are pretty cool, I don't even notice them in my ears like with the ones that come with the iPhone.  You know what would be really cool?  If I got Liz a pair of these, then we could both be listening to the same playlist while we run together.  I wonder if she'd be game for that.  Man, I'm really sweating, I should be close to my 2 miles now.  WHAT??!!  Only 0.6 miles so far??!!  This is ridiculous!!  I'm not even at a mile, I want to do 2 miles today, how on earth am I going to do 3.1 miles next week??!!  This is impossible, I am a total failure.   What was I thinking signing up for this stupid race?  I'm not a runner, I can't run things, I'm going to be so slow and Liz will want to be nice and stay with me but I'm just going to hold her back.  And she should really go for it because she's gotten really fast and I want her to PR this race...why is this song on here?  Nobody can run to this?  God, I can't even get a playlist right, I am an epic failure.  I hate running.  It's stupid.  I'm never running again, why do I DO this to myself??!!  Why, oh why does it have to be the quickest and most efficient way to burn calories and stay in shape??!!  Ugggghhhh!!  Will these 2 miles ever be OVER??!!  **sobbing**  OMG, Melissa Etheridge...yes, I run for hope, I run for life.  She's alive.  She beat cancer and is still kicking ass.  If she can beat cancer I can run 2 stupid miles.  Thank God I don't have cancer.  What if I have cancer?  I should have taken better care of myself.  I should have stopped smoking sooner, started eating better and exercising much sooner.  I should stop giving the kids hot dogs.  What if THEY have cancer??!!  OMG, I'm giving my kids cancer!!  **sobs more**  Ooh, 1.5 miles!!  Only half a mile to go!  That's not so bad! Yes Amy Steinberg, I should just keep on!!  Half a mile is nothing, I have done this tons of times.  I'm actually pretty amazing!  I can't believe I've even been able to run AT ALL with how sick I was as a kid, and I've done a whole bunch of 5K's.  There are so many people out there who can't even WALK a mile and here I am, sad that running 2 miles is hard.  Get over yourself Bel.  Put on your big girl pants, suck it up, and just run.  I am sooooo lucky.  I have a treadmill in my fucking basement.  I can run whenever I want.  I should run every day.  EVERY.  DAY.  Don't take this for granted, you won't have this time home forever.  Ooh!!  I'm almost done!!  1.85 miles!!  Let's go!!  Lets push it as fast as I can go!!  I can run at an 8 no problem!!  I can do this!  I can do this!!  I DID IT!!!  YES!!!    That was an amazing workout!!  I really need to do this again tomorrow.

And this, my friends, is why I cannot run a marathon.  This was me left alone with my thoughts for 2 miles.  I think if I did 26.2 you'd have to commit me at the end.

Running Is Hard

Today's run was supposed to be about distance.  And since it was a nice day out I decided to ditch the dreadmill and go outside.  In general, I like running outside much more than on a treadmill.  However, when you're trying to keep your speed down and add distance, outside makes it really, really difficult.  In my head, I said, "Don't go too fast" but my body didn't really get the message.  So I was out of breath & struggling for a lot of the run, and the sad part is that I didn't really even manage to shave much off my time from yesterday's run, averaging a pace of 10:45.  I also miscalculated my distance.  I looked at previous runs and I picked a course that was supposed to be about 2 miles.  However when I finished it today it was only 1.62 miles.  So I didn't add the distance I wanted to either.  Full run report here at MayMyRun. 

Overall a disappointing run but at least it's in the books.  I think from now on if I need to maintain a slower speed I'll stick to the treadmill and try to work on speed outside.

On a happy note - I got to try out my new birthday present from Wifey:  Dreaminex Bluetooth Headphones.  They were pretty cool!  Much more comfortable than regular earbuds.  And they are blue, which is my favorite color.  Also, I am finding that running is the easiest way for weight to drop off of me, so I'm back into some of my older running clothes, which also makes me happy :) 

Next Up:  A rest day and then hopefully I'll be able to add more runs in during the week.

Under 11 Minutes!!

Today's run my goal was just to run a whole mile faster.  So I started at a 5 instead of the 4 that I've been going with and worked my way up to a 6.2 at the very end.  It was tough.  I was winded, running harder than I have been so far.  I had been averaging just around 12 minutes per mile with minimal effort so I was hoping to make it around 11:30 or so, and I was pleasantly surprised when I came in just under 11 minutes, with a 10:56!!  Woo hoo!!  It hurt, but I did it. 

For my next run (whenever that will be) my goal will be to run 2 miles at a slower pace.  I need to add some distance to my workouts as well as speed, so I will try to vary my focus.  I don't have a lot of time before the race, so my expectations aren't too high, but we will see what I can do!

Two-In-One

I didn't get a chance to write about yesterday's run, so I'll do that with today's post.

Yesterday: (On MayMyRun)
Yet again, it's been about a week since I last ran.  Just did 1.5 miles in 18:01.  The first mile was 12:42, average pace of 12:30 since I sped up as I went along, so I'm still going slowly.  Nothing major to report.  I felt pretty good, it was an easy run.  My biggest discovery was while zoning out, staring at the window in front of the treadmill in my basement...I noticed the carcass of a bee. Disturbing since I'm allergic to bees & the basement is sealed so I have no idea how this sucker got in.  Glad it's dead already so I don't have to deal with it, but now I'm worried that there is a mega nest living in the walls of my house and the only solution is to burn down the entire house.  Perfectly rational train of thought.

Today:  (On MapMyRun)
I wanted to add in some speedwork, so I ran a full mile before I did anything.  Started at a 4 and slowly worked up to a 6 towards the very end of the mile.  First mile was done in 12:24, so I was faster than yesterday.  Then I alternated between walking anywhere between a 4 & a 5 and running at a 7+.  I did 0.75 miles over the course of 8:17.  Hopefully I will be able to add both speed and distance to my runs in the upcoming weeks...I only have 4 weeks left before the race!!

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!

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?

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.

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.

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!

Stride For Survivors Race Recap

So last night Wifey & I ran the Stride for Survivors 5K, my first race since the Milltown Firecracker on July 4, 2014.  I did absolutely zero prep for this.  When I found out Wifey was coming with me, I assumed we would be part of the "walkers" since she doesn't like running races because of her knees, but about a week before the race she said she'd like to try to run it with me.

Clearly I had ZERO expectations for this, other than to not die.  Since we had little prep time, we also had no time to get a sitter for the kids, who I intended on bringing in a stroller to walk with us.  Now that we were running this I needed to find a double jogging stroller, thankfully my friend KO had one she was giving away so I am now the proud owner of a double jogger!!  Thanks KO!!  But this meant I was also going into this race never having used a double jogging stroller before too.

Getting Ready

Needless to say, I had a little bit of anxiety before this race.  Not having run for 10 months, having zero experience with this stroller, having zero experience pushing around an additional 75+ lbs in any stroller while running, and also running with Wifey who was just as undertrained as I was. This was a much different event than I have ever run before.  It was smaller than I expected, which was a good thing and actually very nice for the type of  run it was.  It was also at night - I am used to running races first thing in the morning.  I know what breakfast foods work for me, I know the rhythm of my body first thing in the morning, I know how to prep for that.  But at night...I had a full day of eating under my belt already, I didn't want to eat dinner right before running but I didn't want to not eat anything either so I settled for a high protein snack and called it a night.

Getting Started

We got to the start line and headed out.  This was not a timed race at all but of course I had my MapMyRun app going.  And as per usual, I forgot to start it straight away.  I think we got maybe 0.2 miles in before I started it, so you look at the run on the MMR site, you'll see it only registered about 2.83 miles instead of  the regular 3.1, and we initially took the "shortcut" version that was supposed to only be 2.5 miles because right out of the gate there was a flight of stairs to run down and we weren't going to attempt that with the stroller.  Little did I know there would be much, much more where that came from.  So we took the first "shortcut" and shaved a little bit of distance off too.

Deceiving but this is a double jogger!

I have to comment here about the stroller...I was pleasantly surprised by how it handled!!  It was smaller than my regular double stroller, which was very nice for maneuvering. I have also heard horror stories about people having a hard time navigating in general with the joggers because of the locked front wheel making turns difficult.  But this stroller made it very easy and I was super happy with it.  Whenever we had to go up a curb or run over tree roots or any kind of bump in the road, I braced myself and took it waaaayyy easier than I needed to because I expected it to be jerky and to toss the kids all over the place with any kind of bump like regular strollers do, but this thing went over everything with ease, and boy am I happy about that!!  Because to my surprise, we were also running our...

First Trail Run

Satellite view of the path on the water

Yup.  This was in Historic Smithville Park in Easthampton and the course was right through the woods.  It started on paved paths but then we were on the dirt running over tree roots, up & down hills, etc.  It was fairly awesome scenery & both Wifey & I are excited to go back there and do some running on our own!  We even ran on docks in the middle of the water!!  You can see them in the satellite view on google maps!! (to the right)  When we started out on the paved path we weren't doing horrible.  It was a slow pace but respectable, all things considered.  I was hopeful that we could achieve a decent time if we kept this up.  One of the hardest things was that I am used to not having to talk while running, but R being the curious and fiery little man that he is would not lay off the questions and I was struggling to find the breath to respond.  "Mommy!!  Are we winning??!!"  "Mommy!!  Look at the trees!!"  "MOMMY!!  I see a bird!!"  Nonstop the entire time.  It was so adorable, and so, so exhausting at the same time.  Another thing I did not anticipate were the flights of stairs we would need to climb up & down, the effort involved of traversing these with 75+ lbs in the stroller, and the toll it would take. 

Dealing With Stairs, Children & a Double Jogger

When we started the run, we were greeted with stairs immediately and were pretty much forced to do the shortcut at that point because of them.  We thought that would be the end of it.  Then we crossed a bridge and were faced with a flight going up.  Next to the stairs was a very small paved path that people on bikes were walking up.  The incline was very intimidating but we gave it a whirl.  I remained at the helm of the stroller pushing upwards while Wifey went backwards and pulled.  Attempting to run or walk this incline would have been rough on our own and with the stroller it was damn near impossible.  We actually stopped moving for a while.  At one point Wifey let go and I thought for sure me & the kids were going to go rolling down the hill, but we managed to get up and were fairly spent.  So this is where we walked for the first time.

That took a lot out of us and we would be faced with more stairs.  I don't know why we didn't think of it sooner, but when we got to a downward flight right before we got to the water, it was so steep we took the kids out of the stroller, I walked down the stairs with them, and Wifey carried the stroller.  It made us come to a complete stop for a while and it took a long time, but it was much, much safer than the previous flights.  I am so mad at myself for not thinking of it sooner, except it would have made our time much, much worse. 

Fun Time for the Kids & Conclusion

At the bottom of the stairs we got to the docks on the lake and the kids decided they wanted to run too.  And stop and look at the lillipads.  And the bugs.  And look for frogs.  For run time this means dawdling but I'm glad they got to enjoy some of this too. We let them run/walk/stop across the docks but when we got back to land back in the stroller they went.  We didn't have much left to go after that which was good because Wifey's knee was killing her so we jogged it in to the finish line.  Total time was 45:32, my longest time to date but with everything we encountered, and everything this run was about, I can't be too upset. 

I am so happy my kids got to do this with me and I can't wait for us to go explore this park some more!!  And now that I have the double jogger, I am hoping to be able to get more runs in because now I can just take the kids with me.  Fingers crossed!!!

For those curious, here's the course that we ran:

Here I Go Again...(on my own?)...

Well, running season is upon us.  "Real" runners will argue that there is no season, that running happens year-round, regardless of weather, etc.  But we all know that I'm not a "real" runner.  In fact, I've actually been a pretty crappy runner the past few years.

When I first started and really got into it & found my stride, I was pretty decent.  Running about 10-12 miles a week, holding a not horrible time of about 29-ish minutes for a 5K.  But these days, I have been tending to run twice a year, in races only, with little to no prep time.  And 5K's have been taking me 35-40 minutes.  So I want to fix that.  Plus running will help me drop these last 5 pounds that I can't seem to shake.

In true Bel fashion, I have signed myself up for a 5K at the end of April, and I haven't run at all since I think July of 2014.  So, yeah.  But I have a few weeks to do some conditioning, so I am hopeful that I might be able to set some goals for this race other than to just finish it or just run the entire thing.  The only thing that would stop me is that Wifey is doing this with me (and we will probably have both kids in tow) so we may end up making this a walk, especially since it's a fun run/walk type event and nothing will even be officially timed.  BUT, I want to know that I COULD HAVE run it.  And knowing me, I will probably make sure I do a run that weekend to try to get an estimated time for myself anyway.

So, with the first race of the season on the books, here goes nothing!!