There is a 'cold front' (=lower humidity, not lower temperatures) moving through right now, approximately 3 hours after I finished my long run.
Dew point has dropped almost 10 degrees since then.
Dude.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Chasing squirrels
Today I did the second 12-mile run in the training plan. It went off without a hitch. Part of me wanted to be frustrated with myself for having to walk so much and for not being faster. But another part of me thought about my foster dog. Remember that he is 3-legged, although I'm not sure that he got the memo on that. When we go for walks, he is a very excited guy. Most people don't even realize that he has three legs until they see him up close.
Like many dogs, he likes to chase squirrels. Naturally, he doesn't catch the squirrels. This has almost nothing to do with his 3-legged status and much more to do with the fact that he is held back by me on his leash. He would be perfectly happy to run after them and catch them--although I'm not sure if he would know what to do with one if he did catch one! So overall, it is a wholly futile situation. But it still brings the foster dog great joy. And trust me, he can run. It's pretty amazing to see.
This is a bit like how I run. I am chasing squirrels. I will never be great, I will never be fast. I will never catch my squirrel. But that's okay. Maybe it isn't about catching the squirrel so much as it is about enjoying the chase.
I also made a new rule: if the temperature is over 80Fwhen I start my run, then walking breaks are mandatory. Seems reasonable.
Like many dogs, he likes to chase squirrels. Naturally, he doesn't catch the squirrels. This has almost nothing to do with his 3-legged status and much more to do with the fact that he is held back by me on his leash. He would be perfectly happy to run after them and catch them--although I'm not sure if he would know what to do with one if he did catch one! So overall, it is a wholly futile situation. But it still brings the foster dog great joy. And trust me, he can run. It's pretty amazing to see.
This is a bit like how I run. I am chasing squirrels. I will never be great, I will never be fast. I will never catch my squirrel. But that's okay. Maybe it isn't about catching the squirrel so much as it is about enjoying the chase.
I also made a new rule: if the temperature is over 80Fwhen I start my run, then walking breaks are mandatory. Seems reasonable.
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Thwarted again by the first 12-mile run
The last time that I was training for a marathon in 2010, I was nearly thwarted during my first 12-mile run. Basically, everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Bad navigation, changed ferry schedule, Fleet Week, route change, crowds, and no sourdough chowder (for more, read here). It was annoying, although I was pleased that despite all of these annoyances, I finished the run. And I got a fishwich.
Today, I didn't quite have that, although it is the first 12-mile run and things did not go as planned. As you may recall, I have an awesome foster dog that I am hosting for the Humane Society of Tampa Bay. However, the foster dog and I disagree on the relative merits of me running on the treadmill. He is not in favor of it. For the past couple of runs, I have come up with an ingenious plan of blocking the treadmill with furniture, thereby blocking his route so that he cannot leap onto it in dramatic fashion (and fly off of it in even more dramatic fashion. I should probably add here that the foster dog is 3-legged and recovering from his amputation surgery). I tried crating him while I did this, but he was genuinely not in favor of being crated when I was in the house (he is crated when I go out. I have no idea what his views on this are, but if he feels like barking for hours on end, more power to him. I don't think that he does, though, because he is never barking when I get home). For the past two times I have been on the treadmill, he has sat on the couch, at first with annoyance (and some whining), but then reconciling with his fate and taking a nap. The plan worked well for everyone.
Tonight, I got through 70% of my run before the dog had had enough of this nonsense. He started whining and I got concerned that he needed to go out--smart dog! So we went out for a bit which I was hoping would wear him out for the nap. Yes, that is how slow I am during long runs: so slow that you need to take the dog out for a walk during them. Anyway, my brilliant plan in no way worked because then he decided not only that he had had enough of this nonsense, but that he would leap off the couch and start becoming very curious about the treadmill. Blerg.
I figured that I had two choices: risk him leaping on the treadmill or crate him (I tried tempting him with rawhide and a plastic Nylabone: no dice). I could also have run outside, but it is 75F with 87% humidity and intermittent showers. Plan 1 was to go run outside in the first place, but there was a serious storm earlier tonight which put the kibosh on that idea. I opted to crate him. Bad plan. He barked. And barked. And barked. And while I know that I am not supposed to give in to him barking on the grounds that he will continue to do so next time since he knows it works, I was concerned that my neighbors in the next unit of my detached building would come and kill me since it was getting late.
I caved. I gave up at 10.4 of the 12-mile run. This is super annoying, although I do feel from a physical standpoint that I was capable of running it--it is even more super annoying because I had to end Tuesday's run early due to fatigue (at least I finished Thursday's run without incident!). However, things are not totally grim. Next week is another 12-mile run, so I don't feel like this distance is totally out of reach or that I am necessarily missing a key component of training. I have no idea why me and the 12-mile run have such issues. Perhaps this will be the motivation I need to get up early and get the long run over with in the great outdoors, thereby ensuring that nary a dog can jump on the treadmill deck.
[I would just get a dog gate--and yes, there are dog gates--except that I think I'll wait to see how long the dog is going to be here before making that investment. Or scope Craigslist for one.]
Today, I didn't quite have that, although it is the first 12-mile run and things did not go as planned. As you may recall, I have an awesome foster dog that I am hosting for the Humane Society of Tampa Bay. However, the foster dog and I disagree on the relative merits of me running on the treadmill. He is not in favor of it. For the past couple of runs, I have come up with an ingenious plan of blocking the treadmill with furniture, thereby blocking his route so that he cannot leap onto it in dramatic fashion (and fly off of it in even more dramatic fashion. I should probably add here that the foster dog is 3-legged and recovering from his amputation surgery). I tried crating him while I did this, but he was genuinely not in favor of being crated when I was in the house (he is crated when I go out. I have no idea what his views on this are, but if he feels like barking for hours on end, more power to him. I don't think that he does, though, because he is never barking when I get home). For the past two times I have been on the treadmill, he has sat on the couch, at first with annoyance (and some whining), but then reconciling with his fate and taking a nap. The plan worked well for everyone.
Tonight, I got through 70% of my run before the dog had had enough of this nonsense. He started whining and I got concerned that he needed to go out--smart dog! So we went out for a bit which I was hoping would wear him out for the nap. Yes, that is how slow I am during long runs: so slow that you need to take the dog out for a walk during them. Anyway, my brilliant plan in no way worked because then he decided not only that he had had enough of this nonsense, but that he would leap off the couch and start becoming very curious about the treadmill. Blerg.
I figured that I had two choices: risk him leaping on the treadmill or crate him (I tried tempting him with rawhide and a plastic Nylabone: no dice). I could also have run outside, but it is 75F with 87% humidity and intermittent showers. Plan 1 was to go run outside in the first place, but there was a serious storm earlier tonight which put the kibosh on that idea. I opted to crate him. Bad plan. He barked. And barked. And barked. And while I know that I am not supposed to give in to him barking on the grounds that he will continue to do so next time since he knows it works, I was concerned that my neighbors in the next unit of my detached building would come and kill me since it was getting late.
I caved. I gave up at 10.4 of the 12-mile run. This is super annoying, although I do feel from a physical standpoint that I was capable of running it--it is even more super annoying because I had to end Tuesday's run early due to fatigue (at least I finished Thursday's run without incident!). However, things are not totally grim. Next week is another 12-mile run, so I don't feel like this distance is totally out of reach or that I am necessarily missing a key component of training. I have no idea why me and the 12-mile run have such issues. Perhaps this will be the motivation I need to get up early and get the long run over with in the great outdoors, thereby ensuring that nary a dog can jump on the treadmill deck.
[I would just get a dog gate--and yes, there are dog gates--except that I think I'll wait to see how long the dog is going to be here before making that investment. Or scope Craigslist for one.]
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Fatigue
I had lunch last week with a friend who is pregnant and we were talking about how annoying it is when you know that what you are feeling is out of your control, but you feel it anyway. Like when you get irritable after heat exhaustion (where this conversation started), and you know that irritability is a symptom of heat exhaustion, but you just feel irritable anyway. You can imagine that my pregnant friend had much to add on this topic.
Anyway, today I had to get a Tdap vaccination for immigration purposes (just go with it, the background isn't really relevant for this story). From what I have read online, one in four people develops fatigue from a Tdap vaccination. I felt completely lethargic today, which is why I looked this up.
Do you know what doesn't go well together? Fatigue and exercise.
I tried to do 5 miles today. I couldn't. I felt achy and tired all over (and I don't think that I can blame CrossFit this time, although yesterday's workout was pretty challenging). Then when I got to about 3 miles, I just felt....off. And I decided that in the wake of the heat exhaustion awfulness that feeling off was the cue to stop running. Also, another side effect, nausea, was starting to chime in too.
The really annoying part is that the weather was nice. Quite nice. Lower humidity than normal (okay, not perfect) and not dreadfully hot. But I couldn't take advantage of it liked I wanted to.
My new plan is to do another 3 miles on Saturday instead. It's not the same, but I really was not feeling okay tonight. And now I am irritated, but I can't blame heat exhaustion.
Anyway, today I had to get a Tdap vaccination for immigration purposes (just go with it, the background isn't really relevant for this story). From what I have read online, one in four people develops fatigue from a Tdap vaccination. I felt completely lethargic today, which is why I looked this up.
Do you know what doesn't go well together? Fatigue and exercise.
I tried to do 5 miles today. I couldn't. I felt achy and tired all over (and I don't think that I can blame CrossFit this time, although yesterday's workout was pretty challenging). Then when I got to about 3 miles, I just felt....off. And I decided that in the wake of the heat exhaustion awfulness that feeling off was the cue to stop running. Also, another side effect, nausea, was starting to chime in too.
The really annoying part is that the weather was nice. Quite nice. Lower humidity than normal (okay, not perfect) and not dreadfully hot. But I couldn't take advantage of it liked I wanted to.
My new plan is to do another 3 miles on Saturday instead. It's not the same, but I really was not feeling okay tonight. And now I am irritated, but I can't blame heat exhaustion.
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Huh
It would appear that things are getting better all around. Today was 10 miles. I had these grandiose plans to get up bright and early to run outside, but that didn't happen.
As an aside, I am currently taking care of a wonderful foster dog from the Humane Society of Tampa Bay. So I need to be up bright and early regardless. The problem is turning that into actually getting out and running after taking care of the dog, which didn't happen today.
After putting off the treadmill pretty much all day, I finally got around to it. And you know what? It wasn't so bad. In fact, it was remarkably not bad at all--this is not to say that it was easy, I still walked duirng parts of it and had the speed super low (and was super sweaty). I can think of a few reasons why today was better though:
1) I have been running consistently and competently lately. Nope. That's not it.
2) I have finally, finally, finally adapted to the heat (probably).
3) I'm finally over the heat exhaustion from a few weeks ago (also probably a bit).
4) The CrossFit is really paying off (maybe).
I do have to say that I'm really glad the treadmill was not hell. It will make it much easier the next time I need to use it.
I tried to run on the treadmill on Thursday, but I was worried that the foster dog was going to leap on it. He is currently recovering from surgery, so I don't want him near the moving parts of machinery. Today, I put together a nifty fort of furniture around the treadmill so that he couldn't get to it. Instead, he barked at it during my first interval, then settled down and slept. Good solution.
Do you know what else is fun? This was the long run for this week, meaning that I get two whole guilt-free days off. Yay!
As an aside, I am currently taking care of a wonderful foster dog from the Humane Society of Tampa Bay. So I need to be up bright and early regardless. The problem is turning that into actually getting out and running after taking care of the dog, which didn't happen today.
After putting off the treadmill pretty much all day, I finally got around to it. And you know what? It wasn't so bad. In fact, it was remarkably not bad at all--this is not to say that it was easy, I still walked duirng parts of it and had the speed super low (and was super sweaty). I can think of a few reasons why today was better though:
1) I have been running consistently and competently lately. Nope. That's not it.
2) I have finally, finally, finally adapted to the heat (probably).
3) I'm finally over the heat exhaustion from a few weeks ago (also probably a bit).
4) The CrossFit is really paying off (maybe).
I do have to say that I'm really glad the treadmill was not hell. It will make it much easier the next time I need to use it.
I tried to run on the treadmill on Thursday, but I was worried that the foster dog was going to leap on it. He is currently recovering from surgery, so I don't want him near the moving parts of machinery. Today, I put together a nifty fort of furniture around the treadmill so that he couldn't get to it. Instead, he barked at it during my first interval, then settled down and slept. Good solution.
Do you know what else is fun? This was the long run for this week, meaning that I get two whole guilt-free days off. Yay!
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
So much for that
I have to say that at the start of my run today, I was feeling kind of excited that the relatively good conditions from Sunday were still around. It didn't feel horribly hot. It didn't feel horribly humid. And indeed, it was not as horrible as it could have been. But that does not mean that it was great.
The humidity was bumped up a bit, as was the temperature, and the dew point was over 70 (okay, not by much, but not as nice as the 68 on Sunday...although now that I am looking at the conditions, they got steadily ickier as I went on, which would match my experience of that run). According to Weather Underground, when I started today the heat index was still in the 91F range. Yikes. I was hoping that it had dropped (and Accuweather seemed to think that it had dropped).
[As an aside, I just checked what the conditions were on Saturday during the 5k. 100% humidity. The whole time. Yeesh.]
Oh well. All things considered, it could have been worse. Sure, the run necessitated much more walking that I would have liked, but that's okay. Probably if I could just convince myself to start much slower, I wouldn't have to walk so much. That argument with self isn't going so well, though. If the weather would convince itself to be more temperate, I might be doing better too.
Today was 5 miles with some hills (it was supposed to be around 4 minutes' worth of hills, but I think I did more). I will say that I did well on the hilly parts. Now if I can just get the 'continuous running' parts down, I will be in business.
The humidity was bumped up a bit, as was the temperature, and the dew point was over 70 (okay, not by much, but not as nice as the 68 on Sunday...although now that I am looking at the conditions, they got steadily ickier as I went on, which would match my experience of that run). According to Weather Underground, when I started today the heat index was still in the 91F range. Yikes. I was hoping that it had dropped (and Accuweather seemed to think that it had dropped).
[As an aside, I just checked what the conditions were on Saturday during the 5k. 100% humidity. The whole time. Yeesh.]
Oh well. All things considered, it could have been worse. Sure, the run necessitated much more walking that I would have liked, but that's okay. Probably if I could just convince myself to start much slower, I wouldn't have to walk so much. That argument with self isn't going so well, though. If the weather would convince itself to be more temperate, I might be doing better too.
Today was 5 miles with some hills (it was supposed to be around 4 minutes' worth of hills, but I think I did more). I will say that I did well on the hilly parts. Now if I can just get the 'continuous running' parts down, I will be in business.
Sunday, September 2, 2012
A surprisingly encouraging weekend
I think that part of what I like about running is that it can still surprise you. And not necessarily in bad ways, like when running surprised me a few weeks ago and I got heat exhaustion from it. No, running can also surprise you in good ways. This weekend has had a few of those moments and trust me, no one is more surprised than I am about it.
1) I did a 5k on Saturday. Not only did I not die, I didn't run my absolute worst 5k ever, which was kind of what I thought going into it. It was getting somewhat sunny during the run (it started a bit after 8am), so I had to walk because the sun got to me. But for the most part, I did okay.
2) I finished third in my age group. From this statement, you can probably deduce how many people were in my age group (answer: 3). And had it not been my birthday a couple of weeks ago, I would not have placed third in my age group. Nevertheless, you will have to pry that third-place finish white ribbon from my cold, dead hands as usual.
3) I met an interesting guy who is 75 years old and his goal is to run 1000 races. He is already in the 700s. Talk about impressive. This is one of those happy running surprises that I was telling you about. It's really cool to think that this guy has dedicated himself to running and still finds such enjoyment of it. He did join me in complaining about the weather, though.
4) I realized that I love CrossFit, which I started doing a few weeks ago, only I didn't tell you because it was a secret (I have no idea why I haven't talked about this). Even when CrossFit is really evil and they make you do 100 squats. That for real happened on Friday. I think I will keep it up. I feel stronger and less sluggish when running, so these are positive developments.
5) Tonight, the weather WAS NOT EVIL. No one, I repeat no one, was more surprised about this than I was. It was in the mid-80s, but the humidity was only in the 50% range when I started. And the dew point was under 70...in fact, it was 69. This type of weather is miraculous considering the time of year. I managed to almost run all of my 8 miles tonight. Not quite, because I got too excited and ran too fast at one point, and also it was getting more humid by the end of the run. But it was possibly the most pleasant surprise of all.
Okay, here is hoping that this good running momentum continues. I doubt that it will, particularly because I doubt that this more reasonable weather is sticking around for long. But I will enjoy it while it lasts and be glad that running can still provide happy surprises.
1) I did a 5k on Saturday. Not only did I not die, I didn't run my absolute worst 5k ever, which was kind of what I thought going into it. It was getting somewhat sunny during the run (it started a bit after 8am), so I had to walk because the sun got to me. But for the most part, I did okay.
2) I finished third in my age group. From this statement, you can probably deduce how many people were in my age group (answer: 3). And had it not been my birthday a couple of weeks ago, I would not have placed third in my age group. Nevertheless, you will have to pry that third-place finish white ribbon from my cold, dead hands as usual.
3) I met an interesting guy who is 75 years old and his goal is to run 1000 races. He is already in the 700s. Talk about impressive. This is one of those happy running surprises that I was telling you about. It's really cool to think that this guy has dedicated himself to running and still finds such enjoyment of it. He did join me in complaining about the weather, though.
4) I realized that I love CrossFit, which I started doing a few weeks ago, only I didn't tell you because it was a secret (I have no idea why I haven't talked about this). Even when CrossFit is really evil and they make you do 100 squats. That for real happened on Friday. I think I will keep it up. I feel stronger and less sluggish when running, so these are positive developments.
5) Tonight, the weather WAS NOT EVIL. No one, I repeat no one, was more surprised about this than I was. It was in the mid-80s, but the humidity was only in the 50% range when I started. And the dew point was under 70...in fact, it was 69. This type of weather is miraculous considering the time of year. I managed to almost run all of my 8 miles tonight. Not quite, because I got too excited and ran too fast at one point, and also it was getting more humid by the end of the run. But it was possibly the most pleasant surprise of all.
Okay, here is hoping that this good running momentum continues. I doubt that it will, particularly because I doubt that this more reasonable weather is sticking around for long. But I will enjoy it while it lasts and be glad that running can still provide happy surprises.
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