I would say that I am, at long last, somewhat back on track. Why somewhat? Because my nose is still giving me attitude while running. But overall, I am as close to healthy as I have been in a month. Hurray!
On Sunday, I decided that I might as well attempt to do my long run because if I didn't, I would feel concerned and worried for the next half-marathon. This was after not having done a lot of running due to colds and finally a sinus infection. Because I was somewhat out of practice and still somewhat suffering from the sinus infection, I opted to take a walk/run approach right from the start (0.54 miles running, followed by 0.06 walking). It worked relatively well. I also decided to finally face my fears and tackle the Clearwater Causeway. That went less well. Meh. I am not trained for hills!
The only annoying thing was that my nose was very, very runny throughout the entire 12-mile run. This I could have done without. But I did not feel even remotely as awful as I did during the last half-marathon, which I believe means that I have made progress. Also, I was extremely happy that I even made it through the run, since I had some serious concerns if I was still capable of doing a long distance.
Now we are onto tapering and for the first time in a long time (at least for the past three taper times), I can actually run during taper period. So far, I am not sick....fingers crossed and knocking on wood! Today I decided to do a four-mile jaunt around the neighborhood. It's kind of funny to make up my own plan for runs, since I am so accustomed to following schedules. But I feel pretty good about my ability to put together a reasonable workout that isn't too straining. My plan is to also try some hills this week (maybe Thursday....maybe Saturday.....we will see how things go), do a 3-mile, and do 6 on Sunday. Seems reasonable.
The one annoying thing is that my nose continues to run. Admittedly, today was not as bad as Sunday, at least for the first half of the run, but then it started up again. Also, I caved and walked twice during the run. It remains warmer than I would prefer and there was some humidity in the air. At least, I noticed that at around 0.5 miles, there was sweat running down my elbow. I usually consider sweat at 0.4 miles to indicate icky levels of humidity, so it isn't as bad as the summer...but this is not much consolation when it is January!
Showing posts with label Taper Week. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Taper Week. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Recapping the past week
Well, a week ago we got drier air, and it has been better since then. This did not make my 12-mile run on Sunday any more fun, but I am getting ahead of myself. My 5-mile on Saturday was definitely better; I don't think that I broke any speed records, but I was feeling pretty good during that run.
Then came the 12-mile on Sunday.
For various reasons, I was in Clearwater, which is far from where I usually run (like, far as in it would have added 2 hours to my day to drive back, which was a bit much). So I decided to run on the Pinellas Trail instead. The Pinellas Trail was a railroad line that has been converted into a trail. It runs from St. Petersburg in the south to the northern part of Pinellas Country. All well and good. Parts of the trail were very nice, like the parts near Dunedin. Parts, though, were not so good for running because there was little/no shade, by which I mean the parts near Largo. Little/no shade is not okay for running in Florida. I should have known something was up by the ratio of bikers to runners: more bikers usually means not a shady trail (an observation taken from my experience with the Suncoast Trail, which starts with a straight mile devoid of shade).
The Pinellas Trail has two other aspects where it could do better, I feel:
1) I ran a good 5 miles of this trail on Sunday (I had to loop earlier than anticipated because of the complete lack of shade near Largo). There was not one bathroom to be found.
2) Ditto on drinking fountains. There was one--ONE!!!!!--functional one in the whole 5 miles I covered on the trail. If you're curious, there was one non-functioning one.
Now, I wasn't counting on drinking fountains for actually drinking the water, more as a cooling off option by dumping the water on my head. Instead, I had my fake Gatorade in the car and arranged my run so that I passed it at the half-way mark (so I went 3 miles north, came back, refilled water bottle, then tried to go 3 miles south except that there was no shade. In theory, it was a great plan). But I would think that in Florida, of all places, you could have more than one drinking fountain over a 5-mile stretch. That's not okay.
If you do happen to be on the Pinellas Trail and you need a bathroom, the bus station is not far from the trail in downtown Clearwater. This is the best option, I think, apart from creating your own bathroom in nature's wilderness (while being sure not to invade someone's yard).
So what's been happening since then? Well, I haven't been running. I survived the 12 miles, but haven't been feeling well at all. It's one of those pre-cold tired things, I think. Alternatively, Sunday did me in more than I thought (which wouldn't surprise me at all because it was brutal). When you're not feeling well, it's amazingly difficult to motivate yourself to go running in conditions that are already tough. My plan is to get back on track Saturday and finish up the training program. This has been the year where I get sick, so I guess we are not through with that yet. I think that it should be okay since this is taper time, but trust me that no one is more annoyed at this setback than I am.
Then came the 12-mile on Sunday.
For various reasons, I was in Clearwater, which is far from where I usually run (like, far as in it would have added 2 hours to my day to drive back, which was a bit much). So I decided to run on the Pinellas Trail instead. The Pinellas Trail was a railroad line that has been converted into a trail. It runs from St. Petersburg in the south to the northern part of Pinellas Country. All well and good. Parts of the trail were very nice, like the parts near Dunedin. Parts, though, were not so good for running because there was little/no shade, by which I mean the parts near Largo. Little/no shade is not okay for running in Florida. I should have known something was up by the ratio of bikers to runners: more bikers usually means not a shady trail (an observation taken from my experience with the Suncoast Trail, which starts with a straight mile devoid of shade).
The Pinellas Trail has two other aspects where it could do better, I feel:
1) I ran a good 5 miles of this trail on Sunday (I had to loop earlier than anticipated because of the complete lack of shade near Largo). There was not one bathroom to be found.
2) Ditto on drinking fountains. There was one--ONE!!!!!--functional one in the whole 5 miles I covered on the trail. If you're curious, there was one non-functioning one.
Now, I wasn't counting on drinking fountains for actually drinking the water, more as a cooling off option by dumping the water on my head. Instead, I had my fake Gatorade in the car and arranged my run so that I passed it at the half-way mark (so I went 3 miles north, came back, refilled water bottle, then tried to go 3 miles south except that there was no shade. In theory, it was a great plan). But I would think that in Florida, of all places, you could have more than one drinking fountain over a 5-mile stretch. That's not okay.
If you do happen to be on the Pinellas Trail and you need a bathroom, the bus station is not far from the trail in downtown Clearwater. This is the best option, I think, apart from creating your own bathroom in nature's wilderness (while being sure not to invade someone's yard).
So what's been happening since then? Well, I haven't been running. I survived the 12 miles, but haven't been feeling well at all. It's one of those pre-cold tired things, I think. Alternatively, Sunday did me in more than I thought (which wouldn't surprise me at all because it was brutal). When you're not feeling well, it's amazingly difficult to motivate yourself to go running in conditions that are already tough. My plan is to get back on track Saturday and finish up the training program. This has been the year where I get sick, so I guess we are not through with that yet. I think that it should be okay since this is taper time, but trust me that no one is more annoyed at this setback than I am.
Friday, August 12, 2011
Not the most successful week so far
I'm not sure why I've lost some blogging momentum. It's been a busy week. I'm back in Florida now and the return trip really knocked me out for some reason. No idea why. Here's a tip, though: New Jersey Transit is not fun when there is a downpour. Try to avoid it.
I did a bit of rearranging for this week too. I have two long-ish runs: 7 miles and 8 miles. Both are shorter than last week's 10 mile and this is a taper week. Yay taper week is all that I have to say. I was very much ready for one. Anyway, I decided to run at least one of the long-ish runs before I returned to Florida, which was likely a very wise decision. Then I had to move some stuff around because I was completely knocked out upon return. However, I am on schedule (sort of) to finish this week, even if I'm pretty sure that the 8-mile run will have to be more of a run/walk deal.
TUESDAY -- 7 miles and farewell NYC
After doing the 5K Brooklyn Bridge run, I came up with a crazy scheme to do some seriously tourist running for my final NYC outing. My motto for this run was, 'If it is scenic and in my neighborhood, then I am running past it.' I started with Fort Greene Park. There is one really stupid thing that I did not anticipate: probably they built a fort there because it was an elevated location to provide a good outlook in case of marauding...well, whatever was marauding (I thought maybe Southerners but a little research reveals British). I then decided to run across the Manhattan Bridge, take a left, and head back via the Brooklyn Bridge, finishing things off with the Brooklyn Heights Promenade (remember the motto of this run).
If you are a person who often runs bridges in urban settings, you probably already know why this was a bad idea. Alternatively, if you are a person who knows New York well, you can probably deduce why this was a bad idea. If you take a left after the Manhattan Bridge, forget about running, Jake, because it's Chinatown. And there are approximately one billion people milling around at any time. That's right. They all moved from China to New York and hang out only in the Lower East Side (okay, not really. I exaggerate. But the streets are quite crowded). It's really hard to pick up anything even approximating momentum and you wind up walking quite a bit. The Brooklyn Bridge was also not my best idea since there were approximately one billion tourists seeking to cross it (New York gets very crowded in the summer). However, I wasn't the only person trying to run it, so I didn't feel like a total newbie.
The Brooklyn Heights Promenade was probably my best plan for this run. I liked it so much, I ran it up and back. And again, I cannot laud the New York drinking fountains sufficiently. There is one approximately every five feet on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade--and this time, I am not exaggerating.
WEDNESDAY -- The best laid plans can still be thwarted by NJ Transit
I was ouchie and tired. I decided to take a day off. I don't want to point fingers at the fact that I had to stand from NY Penn Station to EWR on the commuter train because they were only running half of the normal trains because apparently when it rains, half of the trains get scared or something and refuse to come out and work. Also, my flight was delayed (see 'Rain'), so I got home relatively late. My hips were crazy tight. I did make it to yoga class, which helped, but still wasn't ready to run.
THURSDAY -- Florida being Florida
After much, much putting off of running, I finally did don the shoes and get out. It took me until almost 8pm to reach this stage, but hey, I got there. The plan was to run 6 laps around my condo complex to approximate 4 miles (I think that it would be closer to 4.2 miles, but okay). There was only one flaw with this otherwise brilliant plan: apparently I still can't do this at night without needed to walk. Blah. Florida, you win. Honestly. It's just too much with the heat and humidity!
The good news is that I still finished, even though some walking was required. But it was still irksome.
Upon further review: yesterday was one degree off of a record high for temperature. Adding to that, by the time I got out (around 8pm), Weather Underground informs me that it was not only still 84F, but the humidity was 79%. This is over the threshold of ick. Add in a dew point of 75F. The Real Feel temperature (according to Weather Underground) was 95F. Around 8pm. With the sun down. Dude. Come on.
FRIDAY -- The Best Laid Plans Sometimes Don't Work on Fridays
I had a great plan in mind: do some errands and running around in the morning, go to yoga, run 6 x 0.5 miles on the treadmill. Except that on Fridays, my gym closes at 5pm, which is after yoga is done. So instead, I did this outside, which was less successful from an 'actually running fast' stage. However, it was somewhat ingenious from a 'dealing with Florida' phase since I took a break between each interval to recover. Sure, I had to slow down significantly from the first two half-miles. But it's the principle of the thing.
Remaining this week are a 3-mile and an 8-mile. I am kind of already accepting that I will have to walk in parts of the 8-mile. This may hold true for the 12-mile next week as well. It is just too oppressive otherwise.
I did a bit of rearranging for this week too. I have two long-ish runs: 7 miles and 8 miles. Both are shorter than last week's 10 mile and this is a taper week. Yay taper week is all that I have to say. I was very much ready for one. Anyway, I decided to run at least one of the long-ish runs before I returned to Florida, which was likely a very wise decision. Then I had to move some stuff around because I was completely knocked out upon return. However, I am on schedule (sort of) to finish this week, even if I'm pretty sure that the 8-mile run will have to be more of a run/walk deal.
TUESDAY -- 7 miles and farewell NYC
After doing the 5K Brooklyn Bridge run, I came up with a crazy scheme to do some seriously tourist running for my final NYC outing. My motto for this run was, 'If it is scenic and in my neighborhood, then I am running past it.' I started with Fort Greene Park. There is one really stupid thing that I did not anticipate: probably they built a fort there because it was an elevated location to provide a good outlook in case of marauding...well, whatever was marauding (I thought maybe Southerners but a little research reveals British). I then decided to run across the Manhattan Bridge, take a left, and head back via the Brooklyn Bridge, finishing things off with the Brooklyn Heights Promenade (remember the motto of this run).
If you are a person who often runs bridges in urban settings, you probably already know why this was a bad idea. Alternatively, if you are a person who knows New York well, you can probably deduce why this was a bad idea. If you take a left after the Manhattan Bridge, forget about running, Jake, because it's Chinatown. And there are approximately one billion people milling around at any time. That's right. They all moved from China to New York and hang out only in the Lower East Side (okay, not really. I exaggerate. But the streets are quite crowded). It's really hard to pick up anything even approximating momentum and you wind up walking quite a bit. The Brooklyn Bridge was also not my best idea since there were approximately one billion tourists seeking to cross it (New York gets very crowded in the summer). However, I wasn't the only person trying to run it, so I didn't feel like a total newbie.
The Brooklyn Heights Promenade was probably my best plan for this run. I liked it so much, I ran it up and back. And again, I cannot laud the New York drinking fountains sufficiently. There is one approximately every five feet on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade--and this time, I am not exaggerating.
WEDNESDAY -- The best laid plans can still be thwarted by NJ Transit
I was ouchie and tired. I decided to take a day off. I don't want to point fingers at the fact that I had to stand from NY Penn Station to EWR on the commuter train because they were only running half of the normal trains because apparently when it rains, half of the trains get scared or something and refuse to come out and work. Also, my flight was delayed (see 'Rain'), so I got home relatively late. My hips were crazy tight. I did make it to yoga class, which helped, but still wasn't ready to run.
THURSDAY -- Florida being Florida
After much, much putting off of running, I finally did don the shoes and get out. It took me until almost 8pm to reach this stage, but hey, I got there. The plan was to run 6 laps around my condo complex to approximate 4 miles (I think that it would be closer to 4.2 miles, but okay). There was only one flaw with this otherwise brilliant plan: apparently I still can't do this at night without needed to walk. Blah. Florida, you win. Honestly. It's just too much with the heat and humidity!
The good news is that I still finished, even though some walking was required. But it was still irksome.
Upon further review: yesterday was one degree off of a record high for temperature. Adding to that, by the time I got out (around 8pm), Weather Underground informs me that it was not only still 84F, but the humidity was 79%. This is over the threshold of ick. Add in a dew point of 75F. The Real Feel temperature (according to Weather Underground) was 95F. Around 8pm. With the sun down. Dude. Come on.
FRIDAY -- The Best Laid Plans Sometimes Don't Work on Fridays
I had a great plan in mind: do some errands and running around in the morning, go to yoga, run 6 x 0.5 miles on the treadmill. Except that on Fridays, my gym closes at 5pm, which is after yoga is done. So instead, I did this outside, which was less successful from an 'actually running fast' stage. However, it was somewhat ingenious from a 'dealing with Florida' phase since I took a break between each interval to recover. Sure, I had to slow down significantly from the first two half-miles. But it's the principle of the thing.
Remaining this week are a 3-mile and an 8-mile. I am kind of already accepting that I will have to walk in parts of the 8-mile. This may hold true for the 12-mile next week as well. It is just too oppressive otherwise.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Tired legs
Yesterday, I did my first yoga class in a good long while, and I have to say that while it wasn't overly challenging, it was somewhat challenging, and I am definitely feeling tired in different places than normal today. I thought that this would lead to a good night's sleep, but unfortunately I woke up at around 4am very thirsty.
Note to self: do not forget water when running on treadmills, then attending yoga classes. Water is your friend.
I was hoping to get up bright and early today to do half of a 5-mile run, but unfortunately, my 4am wake-up did not help things. Instead, I wound up getting out of bed closer to 10am (this was after being up for a while after 4am), which is too late to actually run. Also, there are still storms circling around in deceptive ways. For instance, earlier today it was sunny and seemingly nice, when I heard ominous thunder. Right now it is raining. Again. You might be noticing a pattern here.
I did get myself to the gym and I tried the weird treadmill that I described yesterday, the Woodway Curve. The jury is still out on this one. It supposedly goes as fast as you are running, but I found it considerably more challenging to get a regular pace than on a conventional treadmill (or just plain running outside). It feels very heavy and I was running about 0.5 mph slower than I was yesterday on the normal treadmill. I got through about 1.2 miles with a couple of walk breaks; it was considerably warmer and more humid today than yesterday, and I got pretty sweaty even just doing that.
My gym recently acquired some rowing machines, like real Concept 2 rowing machines as opposed to those 'replicating water' ones that are actually toys. I decided to do two 500m intervals with a 1-minute rests in between. Considering that my legs were already tired from yoga, treadmill running, and wacky treadmill running, I think I did okay. By the standards of actually erging on the machine, I did not do all that great.
I forgot that this week is a semi-taper week and my long run tomorrow is only 6 miles, instead of upping from the 7 miles last week. So I think it's okay to skip the second half of my run this afternoon, especially since I am feeling tired. Tomorrow, I will set the alarm and get half of the 6 miles out of the way early, then do the rest later (possibly on a treadmill, depending on storms). Next week I should be able to get back on track with the schedule. I do have to say that I've been more excited about things than I am for next week's 8-mile run. Time to stock up on healthy Gatorade and caffeinated runner's jellybeans.
Note to self: do not forget water when running on treadmills, then attending yoga classes. Water is your friend.
I was hoping to get up bright and early today to do half of a 5-mile run, but unfortunately, my 4am wake-up did not help things. Instead, I wound up getting out of bed closer to 10am (this was after being up for a while after 4am), which is too late to actually run. Also, there are still storms circling around in deceptive ways. For instance, earlier today it was sunny and seemingly nice, when I heard ominous thunder. Right now it is raining. Again. You might be noticing a pattern here.
I did get myself to the gym and I tried the weird treadmill that I described yesterday, the Woodway Curve. The jury is still out on this one. It supposedly goes as fast as you are running, but I found it considerably more challenging to get a regular pace than on a conventional treadmill (or just plain running outside). It feels very heavy and I was running about 0.5 mph slower than I was yesterday on the normal treadmill. I got through about 1.2 miles with a couple of walk breaks; it was considerably warmer and more humid today than yesterday, and I got pretty sweaty even just doing that.
My gym recently acquired some rowing machines, like real Concept 2 rowing machines as opposed to those 'replicating water' ones that are actually toys. I decided to do two 500m intervals with a 1-minute rests in between. Considering that my legs were already tired from yoga, treadmill running, and wacky treadmill running, I think I did okay. By the standards of actually erging on the machine, I did not do all that great.
I forgot that this week is a semi-taper week and my long run tomorrow is only 6 miles, instead of upping from the 7 miles last week. So I think it's okay to skip the second half of my run this afternoon, especially since I am feeling tired. Tomorrow, I will set the alarm and get half of the 6 miles out of the way early, then do the rest later (possibly on a treadmill, depending on storms). Next week I should be able to get back on track with the schedule. I do have to say that I've been more excited about things than I am for next week's 8-mile run. Time to stock up on healthy Gatorade and caffeinated runner's jellybeans.
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