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.