Pass

No thanks:

I don't remember how March came in, but it is definitely going out like a lion.

Tempo run

Yesterday, I got myself motivated to run.  I went with the tempo run, which was four 5-minute intervals with 90 seconds in between.  This time around,  I took the toy, so I was able to track the time very accurately.  I haven't actually looked at any of the other statistics; it's pretty safe to say that they were not very good, because I felt vaguely like I was running through sludge.

The key, though, is that I did it.

Also, it was kind of hot.  I was definitely feeling the weather, even though this was only in 5-minute intervals.  Yeesh.  I did a sunset run again, because I'm still not able to get myself motivated to tackle the early-morning conditions.

I was supposed to run a 5k this weekend, but apparently it has been postponed (awwwwwwwwww).  Today there have been some pretty violent storms, although honestly I just spent the last four hours in the kitchen preparing things related to strawberries (such as jam) and I seriously doubt that I would have gone.  Tomorrow might get weird, but at least it looks like the weekend should be clear sailing.

It was as bad as I thought it would be

Feeling my usual lazy self this morning, I decided to wait until the PM to go for a run.*  It was 85F when I started, although the humidity was low and the dew point was a reasonable 65F (by which I mean it was not a horrific 75F+).  That being said, this is too hot for me, at least right now.  I had to walk at around the 30-minute mark.

I decided that today was my 'long run' of my FTL.  I am using that term very liberally. 

Actually, I was reminded of when I first moved to Florida.  It was the start of August, which is the 'Oh God someone shoot me' time of year, weather-wise.  Being that I am lazy in the mornings (are you seeing a pattern here?), I often tried running around sunset.  I also noticed that practically no one could be found after dark, so I avoided that.  However, the actual temperatures were still very nasty and no matter what I did, I had to walk after around 30 minutes.  Did not matter how fast/slow I started.  Did not matter what pace I maintained (although back then, I did not really track my pace very carefully).  At around 30 minutes, I would suddenly have to walk.

Tonight was essentially the same thing.  So I walked for about 1-2 minutes, then picked it back up, nice and slowly.  After that, things were okay.  I suspect that if I had tried to run for much longer, I would have required another walking break, but I also suspect that I got going a bit faster near the end since the end was (metaphorically) in sight--it wasn't actually in sight since I was going by time, but you know what I mean.

I also realized that you need to know what you can and cannot do, athletically.  For instance, I knew that I could get through a marathon when I decided to train for one on the grounds that I don't injure very easily and am generally good at sticking to plans, despite what you might glean from this blog.  However, I also knew not to expect to be too fast, because I'm not fast.  I'm doing a 5k next Sunday and I think that it will be the last one for a while.  One thing that I have learned after 4+ years of running down here is that I am not equipped to run in heat.  Probably some people are.  Then again, some people have knee problems, whereas so far I have been lucky enough to avoid them.  Such is life.

I guess the good news is that the more of this I do, the less awful it will feel eventually.  It's just so blech when you're actually going through the adopting to heat phase!

*Incidentally, the humidity was in the 90%+ range this morning.  In some ways, I'm so glad to be lazy in the mornings.  That would have been ick.

Avoiding running

I came to a conclusion this week: I've been avoiding running.  However, in more promising news, I have been doing other stuff.  Here is the week in summary:

Monday: workout video
Tuesday: rowing machine class
Wednesday: rest (rowing machine class tired me out!)
Thursday: pushups
Friday: rest

Today I was thinking of running this morning, then decided that I wanted to go swimming.  I thought about flipping things so that I would go swimming tomorrow, but the pool is closed on Sundays, so instead I will run.

I think that this is progress.  Activities are being done, just that they are not running.  That's okay with me.  In fact, as I noted at least twice in this past week, it would have just been easier to go running, so hopefully that will be a positive thought.

Another problem this week was my schedule: I wound up being out on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights.  Thursdays I don't get home until after 7pm.  As mentioned previously, I don't really like running around here at night, so that poses a problem.  However, I am looking forward to taking advantage of the Eastern Standard Time sunset and running somewhat later--just as soon as I don't have to be out somewhere for 6-7pm (as I do tonight also).

Fall half-marathon

Over Christmas, my stepmother and I got talking about running a half-marathon.  She used to run wicked fast and has done a marathon.  I, on the other hand, have never and will never run wicked fast, but have also done a marathon.  She wants to get back into running longer distances, so we thought about doing a half.

The plan was to do a half-marathon in Oakville, Ontario over Labor Day (or as the Canadians would call it, 'Labour Day, eh.  Sorry').  However, they have moved the Oakville 1/2 from Labor Day to later in September, which seems silly since it is called the Labour Day Half-Marathon.  But okay.

So now we need to find a new venue.  I am suggesting the Oak Tree Half-Marathon in Genesco, NY.  It would be over Labor Day, the temperature would probably be awesome, it doesn't start at some godawful hour of morning, we could get there on Saturday, then run Sunday, and the pictures make me want to run, like, right now.  I'm pulling for this one.  It seems to simultaneously solve many problems all at once.

Today I did not get out for a run, and we all know what that means: push-ups.  Boo.  Okay, off to finish them, then to bed.

Strawberry Classic 5k

This morning, I ran the 5k of the Strawberry Classic here in beautiful Temple Terrace.  The course went through the golf course neighborhood on what was a rather circuitous route, but overall it was quite nice.  I did take the toy, so I have an accurate time.  It was nowhere near a personal best, but I did run the whole thing, plus it wasn't the slowest 5k time I've ever posted.  So I'm seeing that as a win.

In a few parts, I even felt like I could almost remember how to run again.

The temperature was not horrible throughout.  That being said, I was completely knocked out after the race...and in fact, am still feeling rather knocked out, even though it is 12 hours later.  Probably a combination of being out of shape and weather.  Ah well, I did survive, and it wasn't awful.

The best part of the race?  I got free strawberries!

I think that the lack of training combined with the need to walk in that race a month ago did bad things to my running outlook.  After today's 5k, I was starting to feel it a bit more again.  It seems to be a gradual process, but I am feeling better overall about running.  As I was standing at the start line today, I realized that I was a runner.  Sure, I'm not going through the best patch right now.  But I still have the motivation and drive--it's just buried deep down right now.

Tomorrow I shall attempt to do a long run, giving me a TL for the week with a 5k thrown in.  We will see how that goes!  Worst-case scenario is it gets moved to Monday.

Getting caught up

Last week I was on semi-vacation, touring around various parts of Florida to see spring training games.  I did get to run, but maybe not as much as would be ideal in a perfect situation.  Here is the summary:

1) Monday I did the Long Run of last week's FTL.  Sunday, I was feeling far too tired to actually get up and run, so I postponed it (not to mention that it was the switch to EST).  I did manage to eke out a 45-minute run, which isn't too bad, all things considered.  Actually, I can't really remember the last time I did a 45-minute run, so I'm seeing this as a victory.  It was 'somewhat chilly' when I started: 50F!  Warmed up plenty while I was out, though.

2) Then I didn't do much.

3) Yesterday, I made a plan.  You remember how I mentioned that I want to start doing push-ups?  I found a website that trains you to get from total suckitude at push-ups to 100 in 6 weeks.  You're supposed to do this program three days a week.  I'm also hoping to run three days a week.  So the new plan is that if I don't run, I have to do push-ups.  You might think that this is an obvious answer, since push-ups are easier than running.  However, you are underestimating just how bad I am at push-ups.  The answer is: really super mega-bad.  So I'm hoping that this serves as a good motivator.

4) Today, I toyed around with a variety of things that I could do.  I've been feeling a bit under the weather lately (probably just a cold), so I took the opportunity to sleep in this morning.  Then I decided that later I would maybe hit the treadmill at the gym and do the 'F' portion of this week's FTL.  This decision resulted in 'meh,' though since I needed to be back home to do stuff...okay, I could have done it, but I wasn't feeling it one bit. 

Instead, I did some aqua jogging, using it as my 'T' part.  I did 5 minutes of intense water-running, followed by a two-minute break, repeating this pattern four times (except for the part where I did longer than 5 minutes because the watch did not reset automatically).  Also, I drew an important conclusion: aqua jogging is not as good as running, but that doesn't mean it is cheating.  It's just different.  Not bad.  Different.  Still better than nothing.

Another thing that I realized: we only have five weeks left in this semester.  Then I can develop more of a routine since I won't feel as crunched for time.

Tomorrow I am running a 5k in my neighborhood (the Strawberry Classic), so that should be good.  Not good as in I expect to rock it or anything.  Good in the sense that I don't have to get up super-early or drive super-far.  And it is still running!  I plan to do another 'L' on Sunday, this time working up to 50 minutes.  So yeah, all in all, this past week was not a disaster.

Losing a battle. Not winning the war. At least not yet.

Today I went through a myriad of feelings toward the likelihood of running:

Noon - There is no way in hell I am going running today.
4pm - Maybe I will do my fitness video with Alison.
5pm - Okay, maybe I can handle one pyramid (F of FTL).  Come on.  One pyramid is actually easier than the fitness video.  I can do one pyramid.
5:30pm as I am heading out the door to run - Let's do a tempo run!

No idea where that came from.  And as it turns out, I wasn't quite up for a tempo run, not at this point.  I think that this is due to a combination of factors.  First and foremost: I haven't been running enough to competently do a tempo run.  Coming in second place, though, is weather.  At the same time, weather is a bad excuse because if I run more in warmer temperatures, I will get better at handling them.  So basically I need to run more.

Actually, today I did need to walk.  I got through ~5 minutes of the tempo run and out of nowhere, just started walking--akin to my 'meh' moment on the treadmill a couple of weeks ago.  I walked for 2.5 minutes, then ran another 5, and repeated.  During the 5-minute intervals, I tried to keep up a quicker pace.  And this led me to develop a Plan.

Next time, rather than do a full-out tempo  run, I will cut down the walking time to two minutes, then 1.5, then 1, then 30 seconds, then we will see where we are.  This is great for a number of reasons.  First and foremost: it is a plan.  There.  I have a plan.  Plus it is a reasonable plan.  Second, I can see myself improve as I go, which I hope will be encouraging.  Third, I can program the toy for this plan, so I'll be able to see how things are going with concrete data.

If I had to describe today's tempo run, I would say that I lost the battle, but I'm hoping that I've developed a strategy for the larger War against Running Sloth (or whatever this war is that I am fighting).  Five years ago, when I first started running (whoa!), I realized that it was futile to get mad at yourself when you failed at things.  Instead, it was better to accept that you can only get better if you work from the point where you are.  So yes, I wish that I had kept up the running more over the past month.  But now I have the means to take steps toward improvement.

Also, there is another goal that I am trying to reach, which is to be able to competently do push-ups.  I completely and totally suck at push-ups.  So I've decided to work to get better at them.  I'm not sure if this will in any way help my running, but surely it can't hurt.  In case you're wondering, I managed five today and they were those cheater girl push-ups that are on your knees.  But this is Day 3 of push-ups and they do feel better than Day 1 of push-ups did.  Steps towards improvement, it's all that you can ever do.

New plan. Yes. Again.

I was revisiting an issue of Running Times today (a ridiculously hardcore running magazine), and ran across an article about what to do when your training plans are not going so well.  Their advice was to keep training three days a week with the following runs: fartlek, tempo, and longer run.  I've summarized it in my mind as FTL--much like GTL, but less orange.

Fartleks are basically speed drills, where you run normally, then sprint for a while.  I suck at them because I crave structure, so I tend to do pyramids instead, which is where you run 1 minute fast, then 1 minute slow, followed by 2/2, then 3/3, and back to 2/2, finishing with 1/1.  I like them and they don't take too long to do (while giving you a good workout). 

Tempo runs are meant to be challenging, but not impossible.  You try to hold a 'pushing it' pace for about 20 minutes (after a warm-up).  I've decided that these shorter races like 5ks are about where I am right now mentally and physically, so this should be helpful for those.  Actually, I liked the last 5k so much that I signed up for another one in two weeks: the Strawberry Classic, conveniently located in the neighborhood just to the south of me across the street.

The last run is a 'long run.'  I think that I'm feeling about an hour for this one.  That is longer than anything I have run in a while, so it should be good.

Okay, this is it.  This is the plan.  Three times a week with some variation.  I've got this!

Also, as further inspiration, I got new running shoes....which were long overdue:

They are trail shoes, which wasn't exactly on purpose.  However, I think that they will be good.  I will be traveling to Germany for a month in May/June, so I can also use these for hiking.  This plan worked well in the past and I think that it's a great time for trail shoes.

The Better 5k

I feel that one way you can tell I've been busy as of late is that it took me two days to sit down and actually write about the 5k I ran on Saturday.  *sigh*  I think that the end is in sight, though.  Please let the end be in sight.

I ran the Bartow Festival of the Arts 5k on Saturday morning, which was part of the Bloomin' Arts Festival.  Bartow is located to the east of me and is the seat for Polk County.  It was founded a while ago, so it doesn't look all suburban and cookie-cutter, like most of Florida.  I parked near here, for instance:

Awesomely pretty

And this wasn't just where you parked.  The whole run had pretty good scenery throughout, which was great.  Also, the temperature was far more amenable to running than the 5k two weeks prior.  So much so that I didn't walk.

I have decided to take the advice of the article on running burnout that I read and not feel that every race is a major milestone.  So this time around, I decided to just enjoy it rather than get stressed out about performance.  This worked because it was a nice day with great views.  Plus I actually got out of bed and did it, which at this point feels like an accomplishment.

This sign was also near where I parked:

So what happens if you are not riding a governmental golf cart?

A much better 5k

I ran a 5k this morning.  It was much better than the last one.  For instance, I did not need to walk.

I'll fill in more of this later, along with some photos.  Circumstances prevent me from uploading the photos right now.

Weird parallels with piano playing

I used to play piano.  I took lessons and stuff for years.  Then I played less frequently, because I had other things that I needed to do (also, I no longer own a piano, which makes it tougher).  For a while I had a piano in my office but after a flooding incident, it disappeared.

Now I have a piano in my office again.

(Before you think that I have some crazy awesome upper management position with a piano in my office, let me assure you that I have to play piano on a relatively regular basis in front of forty people.  So it's nice to be able to practice).

Today, I sat down and played the piano for the first time in a while.  Some things sounded okay by the end (Brahms) and some need much, much more work (Bach, or at least it was a reasonable facsimile thereof at times).  This reminded me of my run yesterday.

I didn't take the toy, so I have no idea what speed I went, but I'm pretty sure it was slow.  However, I got through my 3M run with no major problems.  It just felt sluggish.  Much like my piano playing did.  It was more of a Brahms than a Bach run, in other words: I'm lacking in the dexterity, but I can still do the activity with some degree of competency.

To have a Bach run, I think more speedwork will be needed.  At the same time, I haven't done proper speedwork in a very long time, so that's okay.

I'm now extending this metaphor for marathon training to be a Wagnerian run.  Makes sense to me.