The Runner Who Went Up the Hill....that's it. But it's an accomplishment.

Today's training was 'hills.'  Ha!  All training in Pittsburgh is hills!  But I decided to use this auspicious training day to run the hill.

THE hill.

I'm staying at the house to the of the grey car.  So technically, I could need to run this hill every single time I go out for a run.  But I'm not really doing that since I just assume that this hill is far too brutal and is better walked.  However, with 'hills' on the workout, I decided that today was the day.  I ran up the hill.

It took forever.

And I'm awfully glad that it is over.

Next Tuesday I will still be here and it will be 'hills' again.  I think that I will run this again.  But I'm not looking forward to it.

Making Friends with the Hill(s)

A few runs to catch up on.  Thursday I did the '4 mile' run in Tampa, where I did my run/walk for forty minutes.  I got out around 8am, but that one was tough.  The last half of it was in no way fun.  The good news is that I did complete it, though, so I got through what was actually the worst day of training in the heat (it was the longest session).  Then I packed up the car and went to Pittsburgh, where the weather is far more amenable, but not the terrain.

These hills are killer.  Killer.  For Saturday's run, I did four miles again over mostly not too bad hills, although there was still an awful lot of them.  My Garmin doesn't cooperate with the computer that I brought but I look forward to seeing just how much up- and downhill I did--the Garmin tracks your elevation during your runs.  There was one particularly steep one and I decided to count my footfalls to get through it (one of my favorite tricks), but I almost died by the end and had to walk.  This taught me to go more slowly on steep hills.  Lesson learned.

Yesterday's run was supposed to be a six-mile one, but I did wind up walking.  Again, I blame the hills.  I did learn from the day before and didn't energetically tackle anything, but during one long walk around 4.5 miles, I just couldn't do it.  It's hard to explain, but I felt my legs were just....tired.  Which makes sense, but is still annoying.  The rest of the run became a real test with some alternate running and walking.  Around 5.5 miles (with another steep hill on the way), I decided to alternate with 0.05 miles of walking followed by 0.1 of running.  This went okay, although it was still remarkably difficult and painful.  I did manage to run out the last 0.2 miles.  Barely.  To finish, I had to walk up one final hill to get to the house and this actually required me to come up with mental encouragement.  To walk.  Up a hill.  Are you starting to get the idea about these hills?

I was knocked out this morning too.  I blame the hills since I've been feeling pretty good on the long runs over the past few weeks, so I seriously doubt that this was caused by adding one mile.

Today is a day off, then tomorrow is hill training (ha!).  I promise a picture then of the ridiculousness that I am coping with here.  Today I also looked for some tips on hill training and found a video by Coach Jenny.  Coach Jenny recommends that you start by making friends with the hill.  I want to be friends with the hills.  I really do.  But we're still learning how to get used to each other.

Hello, treadmill!

It had been quite a while since I last decided to do a treadmill run.  Today's decision was predicated on a few factors, but was mostly driven by the fact that I've been kind of out of it and unmotivated all day.  Totally one of those days when I look at the clock and think, '4pm?  When did that happen?  And what have I done all day?'  Ah, summer.

Anyway, I had this cool plan to get up early and do stuff, but I didn't sleep well and I decided to take advantage of the fact that I didn't have to force myself out of bed early to not force myself out of bed early.  That being said, I was up by 8:30am, so it's not like I was lounging around until 3pm or anything.  The short version of this lengthy digression is that I had already decided that today would be a treadmill day and that I would do my fartlek (actually a pyramid).

The plan was to do three pyramids (15 minutes each), hoping that there would be no one there and I could do so guilt-free.  There is a limit of 30 minutes for cardio equipment at my gym but if no one is around, I tend to ignore that.  Unfortunately, because the day slipped away, I didn't wind up getting there until 4:45pm.  Around 5:10pm, people started filtering in and I felt I should not go over the 30-minute limit.  So I wound up completing only two pyramids, although this is still much better than not running at all.  I kind of wish that I had finished more, but I'm sure that there will be plenty of opportunities to run more this week, so it's okay.

There is a sort-of thunderstorm, so I don't really want to finish up outside.  What I mean by a 'sort-of thunderstorm' is that there is thunder and rain every so often, then it seems to stop.  No idea if it has stopped for good now.  It's the time of year when storms come and go.

What doesn't kill me makes me stronger, albeit sweaty

Today was the real deal Florida AM run.  Humid (although in the 80% range because I went around 8:30), sun out, and too warm for running.  I did another one of my walk/run deals for 30 minutes.  During my first walk interval, I realized that this week actually has a different format than the previous weeks and that I was pretty sure this morning's run was supposed to be a fartlek.  Ah well.  Saturday is supposed to be 3M, so I will just move stuff around and finish up the week as is.  Tomorrow, then, is 4M (ew) and Thursday will be a fartlek.  That might not be so bad since there is walking in it (if I do a pyramid instead, which is fully what I intend to do), although I don't think that I will go very fast.  Actually, I should probably do three pyramids since it is supposed to be a 4M fartlek, so that is the new plan (each pyramid = 15 minutes, in a world where we are pretending that I run relatively quickly).

Today was another tough one, as evinced by the fact that sweat is still dripping off of me 15 minutes later (ew).  I had been lucky so far in avoiding Mr. Florida Sun--as he was affectionately known during marathon training--but today I figured I should face him.  He's still a strong and powerful entity.  But this is all part of adapting.  This run was not fun.  At least it wasn't hideously awful and I survived it.  I was a bit disheartened to realize that these are basically going to be the conditions for the rest of my training plan, but I tried not to dwell on that fact for too long.

It's summer. Yes it is.

I have to admit that last night's run and this morning's run didn't feel so bad.  They weren't my favorite runs ever, but they also were not as terrible as I remembered running in Florida during the summer.  Some part of me was hoping that I had magically adapted over the years or that I was stronger as a runner and that was paying off.  Then came tonight's run and I realized that none of this was true.

Instead of completing a full five-mile run today, I decided that it made more sense to chop it up into two parts.  Chopping up longer runs into parts is an okay thing to do during training, particularly when you are trying to get adapted to heat.  I also stuck with my plan from yesterday where I ran for four minutes and walked for one.  Each mile was estimated at about 10 minutes, so for every mile I was supposed to run, I would run 4, walk 1, run 4, then walk 1.  In other words, a 5-mile run became fifty minutes of walk/run and today, I chopped that into one 30-minute segment and one 20-minute one.

Overall, I think that this is the better plan from 'just go and run and eventually you will adapt even if the first little while is akin to torture.'  I tried that method last summer and I think that the most debilitating part is that it has kept me from running when it is hot.  All that I remember is how awful I felt after many runs last year and I don't want to have that feeling again.  Instead of going out, I find ways of putting off running to avoid the heat (see: this blog from February - April).  The chopping it into intervals with walking makes running more manageable in tricky conditions.

That being said, I was reminded tonight that even these easy runs can become hard when it is hot.  It took all of my concentration to power through the last interval--bearing in mind that this was the last 5 minutes of a 20-minute run total, whereas just last week, I was powering through 5 miles like it was nobody's business.  I did manage to stay in the shade because it would have been even worse in the sun.  It's too bad in a way that the previous two runs were a bit deceptive in their conditions, making them seem less challenging because somehow this made tonight feel even worse.  This morning, for instance, the humidity was only at 85%--if you can imagine--instead of the normal 98% or so.  But at least I've found a way to cope. 

It also helps to remember that there are only three more runs to go until I will be in more amenable conditions.

Staying on schedule...somewhat.

In case you are wondering, I did make my 3-mile run on Thursday in Munich before heading to the airport.  It was a titch humid, but it was still done, and that's all that matters.  I did the same Theresienweise route as Tuesday because I thought it might be unwise to try a new route on a day when I had to get a flight.

Meanwhile, back in Florida, I thought that I would go running this morning, but the heat index was somewhere between 91-100F around 9am.  Ew.  Many people advise that you run first thing in the morning before sunrise, but from my experience, that is when the humidity is at its worst.  So I prefer to go around 8am-9am.  The sun is a bit hotter, but still manageable, and the humidity is not at the 99.9% level like at 7am.  This morning, though, it was hard to get excited about going.  Also, I wanted to go pick blackberries and learned that the pick-your-own closed at 11am (and is the other side of town), so I decided to skip this morning and get on the treadmill later.

That didn't happen because I invented home improvement projects that needed doing.  Like I went to Target and bought the stuff needed for not one, but two home improvement projects.  By the time that the first one was done, it was too late to get to the gym.  It's entirely possible that I was putting off running at this point.  Okay, it's more than possible.

I finally managed to convince myself to go around 7pm and also made a modification in the plan.  I was supposed to run three miles today but realized that this would not go so well considering that I am not at all heat adapted.  So I opted instead to run for 30 minutes--which is around the time required to run three miles (ha!  Okay, not really, but it's not that far off)--with walk breaks every four minutes.  I hate walk breaks, but I decided that in this case, it would probably be beneficial.  They aren't harmful from my experience, even if they are somewhat annoying.

The first 4-minute run really didn't feel so bad, mostly because there was a breeze that cooled things slightly.  However, it also looked like there might be weather accompanying this breeze, so I decided to just run around my complex instead of venturing out in my neighborhood.  Weather did not arrive during this run, but I would really prefer not to be caught in a sudden storm here.  Even more than Munich, that can be dangerous.

The second 4-minute run felt somewhat worse, with the remaining ones feeling progressively more difficult. I do have to say that I don't feel as icky as I did last summer when I first starting heat adaptation, but that is just fine with me.  Last summer was close to torture.  I haven't quite decided what to do about tomorrow's 5-mile run; chopping it up is still probably the best plan, even if that does necessitate going in the morning.

Did I mention that it is only six more days until Pittsburgh and that on two of those days I get to rest?

Running in the English Garden

The English Garden in Munich is one of the city's largest parks, stretching from the downtown to basically the outskirts if you keep going long enough.  Also, it is a place where absolutely everyone in Munich seems to go to run.  When I went there for the first time, I saw countless runners.  So I decided that I, too, would find a way to go run in the English Garden.

The problem was, where I was living before was a considerable distance away.  It would have been a 30-minute subway ride just to get to the Garden.  This trip, though, it was a much more reasonable 2-stop subway ride, so I decided that my time had come.  I started at the Hofgarten, which was the garden for the royal palace, and is attached via a tunnel to the English Garden.  There is a hill that one must descend to get from the Hofgarten to the English Garden and it is not exactly what you want to see at around 3.80 of your 4-mile run, but I survived it...barely.

The garden itself is pretty nice to run in, even if there is quite a bit of traffic with people walking, running, and biking all over the place:

I ran past this today.  Photos are from an earlier trip.

I do have to say that it was nice running in such a huge park.  For my 4-mile run, I basically ran two miles out and back.  Didn't need to change paths, double back, or anything.  It is that big.

Nice and peaceful....this isn't really what the whole thing is like, though.

For some reason, though, I was not really feeling today's run.  I think that it was a tad bit hot.  Not super hot or anything.  Just a tad.  But it was enough that it wasn't quite as much fun as it could have been.  Also, that final hill...that thing is a killer.  No, I don't have a picture.  You just have to trust me that it was the most awful hill ever (okay, it really wasn't, and it wasn't even so bad, it was just not my favorite thing to run at 3.8 miles!).

Tomorrow, the plan is to get up bright and early to run before getting my flight back.  I think the fact that Florida is currently experiencing a heat wave with no relief in sight might just motivate me to do it.  Florida simply should not experience heat waves in the summer.  That is unfair.

Back in Munich

Yesterday, when I got up, I thought about going running and my legs virulently replied, 'NO.'  They also pleaded with me to never walk up 500+ narrow stairs again.

This morning, when I got up, I meant to do my 3 miles running in the opposite direction along the Rhine, but that didn't happen because I ate something that disagreed with me, then slept terribly.  The thing that I ate that disagreed with me was Flammkucken, which you would think would be relatively innocuous, but there you have it.

So my 3-mile run had to wait until Munich, after some travel (and stomach recovery time).  I noted that it was supposed to rain around 6pm and opted to miss out on the possibility of being drenched, Munich-style.  Instead, I went a bit later and decided to run around one of the local parks.

Except that it wasn't a park so much because it appeared to be under construction.  Why would a park be under construction?  Because it's not so much that it is a park; it's more that it is the beer grounds where people have Oktoberfest.  Since right now it is not Oktoberfest, it's somewhat empty, apart from a giant statue of Bavaria personified that can be seen from afar:

Bavaria, the statue! (Photo credit: http://tripideas.org/theresienwiese-munich-germany/)

Other fun things about the Theresienwiese (which is what this place is called) included the perimeter, which was nice and shady with a good running path.  Near the end of my run there was a not insignificant hill.  Good for training, even if I'm still not quite running hills all that well.

Tomorrow is a 4-mile run and my plan is to run in the English Garden, since that seems to be where everyone and his/her brother runs when in Munich.  When I was here a few weeks ago, it was somewhat far to get there.  However, now I can easily take the streetcar over and back.  Then I only need to motivate myself to get up bright and early to do my Thursday run--I think that anyone who follows this blog must already be aware that 'bright and early' is not exactly my thing.  I'll just keep reminding myself that it's 3 miles bright and early or 3 miles of sweaty and hot in Florida.  Hopefully that motivation will work.

Two cities, two scenic runs

Yesterday wound up being a bit hectic as I sought to make the earlier train rather than the later train (okay, actually there are trains that leave every hour from Hamburg to Cologne, but I still wanted to make the one that left earlier than the next one....if that makes sense).  So today is another 2-4-1, as well as some looking ahead at the next week.

Hamburg: Alster Lake

Actually not the part of the lake that I ran around, but still part of the same lake.

Hamburg has a huge, artificial (created by a dam) lake in the middle of it called the Alster.  As you can probably imagine, this is a favorite place to run, particularly in the other part of the Alster that is not shown in this photograph (fewer buildings).  I think that I saw more runners there than I have, total, over the past month.  It was a three-mile run, and while it could have been a bit nicer because it was spitting rain, overall I cannot complain.  Okay, one mild complaint: to get to the Alster, you need to run down a hill.  This is not the complaint.  It's on the way back when you have to run up the hill that is not so nice.  But I did survive.

People also row in the Alster, which was nice to see while I was running, but served as a helpful reminder of how slow you run versus how fast you can row:

The better mode of transportation.

Also, I had to wait at red lights for annoying amounts of time.  My favorite was the light at 2.99 miles of my 3-mile run.  *sigh*  I waited, then ran across the intersection, just to feel like I had completed my goal for the day.

Cologne: The Rhine

Before I describe today's run, you need some background information.  Cologne's major monument is the Dom, a cathedral in the middle of the city:

I know that you have no sense of how tall this is from this photo, but let me assure you, it is tall.

For some reason, while visiting the Dom (Cathedral) this morning, I had the urge to climb up the tower to get a good view of the Rhine.  There are 509 steps:

Do not do this if you get vertigo easily.

I can assure you that 509 stone steps are pretty much worse than any hill I have encountered, except possibly some in Pittsburgh.  I could feel my legs and they were somewhat spastic after the climb.  This was a bit disconcerting because instead of going running this morning, I chose to go to the hotel-provided breakfast (incidentally, it was a feast and definitely worth attending.  Then I burned it off climbing up the cathedral steps).  I was worried that my stair-climbing would affect my run, and I think that it did a bit because I was stiff for the first mile or so.  But then things straightened out and since it was a 5-mile run, I had plenty of time to recover.

I decided to run along the Rhine because hey, there is a huge, major river, and why wouldn't you run next to it?

The Rhine.  Photo taken by me, this morning, after climbing the 509 stairs.

Although it was somewhat congested to start, eventually the people thinned out and it was an extremely pleasant run.  I made it pretty far, to the point where I could see a green bridge in the distance with hills in the background.  Super scenic.  All in all, two great runs in two wonderful cities!

Running plan for the next week

I made two executive decisions today:

1) I'm going to run a 3-mile tomorrow.  It is scheduled for Tuesday, but that is a travel day and I don't want things to get too hectic.  At around 4 miles of today's 5-mile run, I asked myself how I was feeling and I feel well enough to do three miles tomorrow.  For some variety, I will go the other way along the Rhine, in a northishly direction.

2) Next Sunday will be five miles in Florida.  Boo!  I've decided to chop that up into two runs: one 3-miler in the morning and one 2-miler later.  This way I might not die.  We will see.

Last Day in Berlin

(I've actually already left Berlin and am writing this from Hamburg, but forgot to blog before I turned off the computer this morning).

Today's run was great.  Really great.  The temperature was divine: around 15C.  There was absolutely, positively not one single chance of overheating.  In fact, when I was standing outside waiting for my Garmin to load, I felt almost chilly.  Not quite chilly.  But almost.  Heaven!

And my run was equally good to go with this great weather.  I think that I actually held some pretty good paces for a while (there was the inevitable red light or two, so my time isn't completely accurate, but for me it was still pretty good).  My Garmin wanted to pretend that I ran something like a 6:30-minute mile pace for a bit, but I think it was just trying to flatter me.  It was a good run, but not that good.

Tomorrow is a well-deserved day off, then I have a 3-mile run to do.  That will likely take place in Hamburg, although I have to figure out a good place to actually run here!  Where I am staying is not exactly ideal.  Definitely not Charlottenburg-sized sidewalks.

She who hestitates gets rained on

Yet again with the weather forecast: when I got up this morning, I checked the weather and was told that it would start raining probably around noon and keep raining for the rest of the day.  However, when I went outside to run around 9:30am, it was already raining.  *sigh*

However, this was not drenching, awful rain, more of an intermittent drizzle, so really I can't complain.  I was a bit annoyed with myself for not just going when I got up, since it hadn't started to rain at that point, but it turned out fine.  It is good that I went when I did since now it is not only raining pretty hard, but there is also a thunderstorm.

Today I got a 2-4-1 in the form of scenic routes.  First, I ran around a local lake:

Taken yesterday, when it was not raining.

Running half-way around the lake was only around 0.8 miles and today was 4 total, so I decided to add on and see where I wound up.  I managed to make my way back to yesterday's palace, although I didn't actually have much to go by the time I made it there.  So it was mostly just running to the palace, plus the lake.  However, running to the palace (from the point where I started) was also not too bad because there really aren't many stops along the way.  In contrast to yesterday, I only had one red light where I had to stop.

Berlin's sidewalks remain spectacular, at least in this region.  Today there were two pedestrians plus a woman in a wheelchair and there was ample room for me to keep running.  Well done Charlottenburg!

Under the lindens

I am in Berlin and as I guessed, it is flat.  Pretty much completely flat.  Bit of a change from Austria!

Today's run was very nice.  I didn't get out until after 10am, but it wasn't too hot.  This is a nice change from lots of other places I have been lately.  Also, there was a cool breeze and it wasn't too humid.  Apparently, it is unusually humid for Berlin these days, but that is a pretty reasonable amount of humidity for someone who has spent time in more southern climes.  I found it quite nice.

I'm staying in Charlottenburg, which is a great place to run.  The sidewalks are huge.  You could probably fit 10 people across them, seriously (maybe not 10 big people).  But there is no difficulty when you are running to avoid other pedestrians.  I find this great.

This morning, I ran to the local palace and back.  It's pretty sweet because there are huge gardens and you are right by the Spree, which is the local river.  The run there is slightly less pleasant because you can hit a lot of red lights, but that's okay.  I didn't worry about time this morning as a result.

Tomorrow, I can go run around a local lake.  Not a bad place to be situated to do some running!

One thing that is slightly irritating: there are a lot of linden trees in the area, which means a lot of linden sap on my shoes.  Ah well.

Last three days

It's been a busy trip, so I haven't had time to keep up with the running blog.  I could give you a 3-4-1 for the past few days, but that seems like a bit much, so instead I will just summarize. First things first, here is a sample of what I see while running here:

The hills are alive!  But with grapes and trees and such.

My runs generally went quite well.  It was a 4, 3, and 5 to finish off the week, so that is three straight successful weeks.  The calves haven't been giving me any trouble at all, which is great, and I have no new issues to report.  I do have to say that this week's 5-mile was not nearly as nice as last week's.  I wound up in the sun for a lot of it and while it wasn't insanely hot, it was more warm than one might like in this situation.  But I survived, so no big deal.

There have certainly been hills over the past few days...not quite like in the photo, but hills nonetheless.  It's good practice.  I can feel like my muscles are almost getting used to them, which is not to say that I am running them very well, because I am insanely slow.  But it's good practice.  Who knows what I will find in Berlin, which is the next stop on my journey?  Something tells me 'not many hills,' but I guess I will learn soon enough!