Monday, March 28, 2011

Progress


I had a better running week this week than last. I am following that beginner program and it is going well.


Sunday - 3.37 miles, 53:11 minutes. The program called for a 10 minute warm-up, then 4 x 3 run, 1 walk, then 10 minute walk. I've been walking longer than that at the end.

Tuesday - 2.89 miles, 43:37 minutes. Same pattern as Sunday. Also, my Nike+ mileage matched my Phone/GPS/Map my run mileage exactly. To the 1/100th of a mile.

Wednesday - I took a > 1 mile walk at lunch at work. I wasn't wearing the Nike+ but did have my phone.

Thursday - 3.1 miles, 46:12 minutes. Same pattern as Sunday & Tuesday. This should have been the last one but I realized afterwards that it should have increased to 5x rather than staying at 4x.

Saturday - 4.54 miles, 1:09 minutes. 10 walk, 5x 3Run 1 Walk, remainder walking.


I also walked about 35 flights of stairs at work this week, did the leg exercises from the running book about 3-4 evenings this week and did abs/crunches about 4-5 evenings. I can tell a difference in how my legs feel from the leg exercises already.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Starting Over

I feel very much like I'm starting over running. I've lost nearly all of my fitness or stamina since the half-marathon. After my run Friday I decided to find a couch to 5K or couch to 10K plan. I took the beginner one from the book I recently read Run Less, Run Faster and looked at the times and decided to skip the first 3 weeks. That would mean that this week my runs will be 10 walk, 3 run 1 walk (x4), and 10 walk. Yesterday I decided to do the last workout of the prior week (should have been 10 walk, 3 run 2 walk (x4), and 10 walk. I started and wanted to push myself to do the 3/1 and did. But it was just shockingly hard for me. My HR was up in the high 170s or mid 180s for each running segment. It's crazy. I mean I ran/walked a half-marathon a month ago! Literally one month ago! My legs don't feel that tired but it's hard to get my breath when running.

In other news, I got new running shoes and 2 new pairs of running shorts yesterday. I took both kids with me to Academy which generally is a terrible idea but I wanted to give R a break. I planned to get the same shoes so we sort of rushed to that section, found the same shoes, tried them on super fast, took 3-4 steps and noticed that they slipped somewhat but figured they just needed broken in. Then we grabbed some shorts, piled into the very ad hoc dressing rooms (I guess Academy is remodeling), tried them on, and decided on two pairs. We paid and got out of them and I praised the kids up and down about their wonderful behavior and cooperation. Later I took the laces out and had the shoes and box sitting on the counter when my wife said, "why did you get Wide?" Huh? Wide? I would never get Wide… my feet are super nar… oh. Well hell. Later the entire family needed to go to the yarn store so I ran into Academy, traded the shoes for the same size but not wide and didn't even try them on. I tried them on at home and they're fine.

In other other news. The Run Less, Run Faster book has a 5 exercise series that they recommend for runners. I did 4/5 of them (couldn't figure out how to get into the stability ball-push-up position without breaking my neck) while the kids were watching Sound of Music Saturday. I'm still sore so I'll do them again tonight. It's like a 10-15 minute series plus I've been doing 5 minutes of abs 4 days a week or so.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Running or not

I've hardly run at all the last two weeks. I came down with a cold or allergies a few weeks ago and it's made it very hard to run. I wake up feeling all tight in the chest and coughing like crazy. By afternoon I feel like maybe I could run but I don't have any flexibility to do so then. I came home early from work yesterday afternoon and went for a run. I don't know if it was 1.) the 2 week layoff 2.) the cold/cough/allergies or 3.) the 89 degree temperature but I could not even do my 6 minute run/1 minute walk intervals. My HR hit 185 on the 2nd interval. I tried to use my watch as a guide and walk whenever I hit 178 (92% of max) but that only took 60-90 seconds each time. I ended up having a mostly walk. I also went for a long walk last weekend of about 4 miles at a pretty good pace. I can walk 4 miles in just over an hour. It's a bit depressing though that my running speed ranges from 11:00-12:00/mile and my walking is 15:00-16:00. I've been trying to get in little bouts of walking like a mile during my lunch break last Wednesday or 2 miles last weekend when I took the kids to the park and then walked in circles while they played. I walked another 2 miles last night while stroller walking the baby to sleep. I've also done some Yoga from a podcast on the computer and been doing an ab workout.

The bottom line is I'm sort of off-wack or something. I'm actually thinking of going back to a beginner walk-to-run program just to get started again. One of the books I have has a 12 week walk to 5K program. I'm thinking of starting on week 3 or 4 of that. I guess if next week comes and my running is much better and it turns out that it's just a cold, I could leap frog through that program or just skip to the intermediate program in the same book.

Blech.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

New Blanket

I started a new blanket this weekend. I vaguely think that the parents may have had this blog's link at one point so I don't want to give away too much information but I'm quite excited about it. I started it Friday and the pattern called for Treble crochet radiating out from the center in a circle (really a dodecagon). I didn't like the way it looked so I tore it out after about 6 rounds Saturday and started again but using a smaller hook and double-crochet. I'm now about 20 rounds in and have used up one skein of yarn. I think it looks great and it seems to be going really fast. Of course R reminds me that circular blankets always seem to go fast at the start but I finished a skein of yarn in a day so that's got to be fast, right?

Also, it's giving me a break from working on a blanket for my oldest sister. She asked for a blanket when I saw her in November and I started one but a. It's earth tones which I don't particularly like and b. it's for a king-size bed so it's huge and pretty boring. I'm going to end up having to force myself to work on it like I have to do 4 rows when I do 2 rounds of the fun one or something.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Running



Another pretty skant week running.

Sunday - Taking the kids for a balance bike ride. 1.26 miles. That's just walking.

Monday - 4.83 miles. 58:14 minutes. 12:30/mile. Ok run.

Wednesday - 4.8 miles (totally guessing distance) 55:11 11:30/mile. A nice run at the lake in the afternoon after an appointment with the homeopath.

Wednesday (take 2) - Took the kids for a balance bike ride. While they played at the school, I walked in circles around the play yard. 2.33 miles.


From then on my running (or lack thereof) was governed by my cough. Dumb cough. I saw the homeopath and she gave me some stuff for immune support and allergies. I hope that works well and quickly.





Friday, March 4, 2011

Friday Afternoon Musings

  • Multiple people are asking me if I've lost weight/am losing weight. The scale says no but some days my clothes say yes and when I tell them that, they all say "Oh you are!" so I should probably feel good about that. I saw the homeopath the other day and the first thing she asked was had I lost weight. She felt like my face seemed thinner. I've always thought my face was about the last damn place I need to lose weight having a pretty pointy face to begin with.
  • This morning I went to get my smaller slacks from the closet and try those on. I didn't find the ones I was thinking of but did find some I had forgotten about. They seem to be in between current size and smaller size. (God, how many sizes are in my closet!???). I think they look nice and they have actual pockets. You know, like more than the first knuckle of my fingers fit in the pockets so I can put money or even my keys in there?
  • I may or may not be having allergies or perhaps I may or may not be getting a cold. I don't know. I woke up Wednesday with a sore throat, worse Thursday, better (mostly) today. I'm torn between desperately wanting to run and wanting to fall into a coma on a moment-by-moment basis. We'll see which I do this weekend.
  • I'm now in the dreadful state of being between training plans. I suck at being between training plans. I also suck at being Zen about being between training plans. I keep looking at training plans anyway. I installed the Runner's world Smart Coach for my Android today and put in that I'm training for a half-marathon 16 weeks from now even though I'm not just to have a plan on my phone. I got a book (Run Less, Run Faster) and I like their approach to training. But I seem to be between their plans. So they have plans for folks who run very very fast marathons (2:45) to people who run a 2:30 half-marathon. Well my last (and first) (which is very different from my first and last) half-marathon was 2:50 so I don't fit that plan is too fast for me but I'm way past their beginner programs that are like "walk 10 minutes, run 12, walk 10...". I may go out and sort of push myself to a 5K to see if I can get a time that's in the training table. If not, that needs to be my next goal I guess.
I wonder what the weekend will hold.