Workouts 9/10 - 9/16

I had good workouts last week and others that were non-existent.  Literally.  Emotionally it was a very hard week.  The fact that September 11th and my mother's Yartzeit occur within a day of each other means that I experience the grief of the entire country and then my own personal grief and it can really pull me down.  I used to think that missing my mother would get easier and perhaps on a daily basis it does but for big things/events/dates, it doesn't seem any easier at all.

Hmmm. I just realized the days on the image above are off by a day for Monday and Tuesday. Perhaps I entered them wrong on dailymile but I don't think so.

Monday - Arms & Shoulder workout.  A very good workout in the evening.  I'm feeling stronger with each workout.
Tuesday - 3.8 miles in 44 minutes (11:34) plus walking warm up/down.  I was thinking a lot about the 9/11 attacks and the first responders during this run.  Ran a 3:00/1:00 and felt really good and smooth. 
Wednesday - Friday - Stomach bug 1, ChocolateMe 0.  No workouts. I stayed home from work Wednesday and went on Thursday and Friday still feeling crummy.
Saturday - 12.7 mile bike ride in 1:03.  Very lovely day. I rode over through the park and to the end of town or very nearly so. Then back. 
Sunday - 7.5 miles in 1:30 (12:00) plus walking warm up/down.  Temperature was 65 with steady rain. I wore a hat and long sleeve tech shirt and was comfortable and enjoyed the run. It was 20 minutes zone 2 (run at 2:00/1:00) and then 3 minute zone 3 surges (all 3:00 running harder).  The pace was pretty good for me for a run that long.  I did some good stretching in the evening and am feeling just a little tightness today. 

I mentioned last week being excited because I can now use Nike+ on my new phone.  I've now gone on 3 runs with the phone and all three have stopped recording right around 30 minutes/2+ miles.  I need to send a note to technical support but if this doesn't improve, I will bag Nike+ and just measure mileage on RunKeeper/record on dailymile. 

Workouts 09/03 - 09/09

I'm not sure whether it was a ... what do you call it? Step-back week? Recovery week? Easy week? last week or just cardio only.  I definitely liked it.  I know that I need to do strength and core work but neither are fun to me.  Just not fun.  Wednesday was actually the first scheduled day off since I started training with this coach.  (I took it on Tuesday).  I've missed some workouts but not had scheduled days off. 


Monday - 3.65 - 45 minutes (12:19) plus walking warm up and down. Was supposed to be biking but I went out to the garage and remembered that the cage for one of my pedals was half off and I didn't have the screws to reattach it. Since it was getting warmer every moment, I changed into running clothes and headed out to run in the low 80s with high humidity.  Blech. 

Wednesday - 3.57 - 45 minutes (12:36) plus walking warm up and down.  74 degrees with 92% humidity which is hard to breathe.  Ran 2:00/1:00 and felt faster than the stats show. 

Friday- ?? - 1:00 - Per coach this was a "naked" run meaning no technology.  No GPS, Nike+, HRM. Just run an hour.  The first half hour was mentally hard but then I got into it. 

Saturday - 1:30 bike ride.  I estimated the distance at 18 miles but it could have been anywhere from 15-19.  I had a really enjoyable ride. I'm supposed to maintain steady cadence for these but have a hard time doing that on undulating terrain and with stop signs, lights, dogs, etc.  My heart rate doesn't get as high as I feel like my legs are working hard. I'm not sure what that means.  I rode through Pflugerville a bit, then through the park and out Pecan and found this park that I never knew about (it turns out it's new).  It has paved trails through trees for maybe 1-2 miles. The strangest thing is that all the pedestrian/bike paths yield to the cars rather than vice versa. 

Sunday - 7 miles - 1:30 (12:51) plus walking warm up/down.  Per coach I ran a 2:00/1:00.  Might have been a lower HRM than it should have been.  My legs felt tired (no doubt due to the previous two days). 



Other notes:
My new phone came on Friday late.  We actually stayed at the house all day because we thought UPS would make us sign for them and didn't want to miss the phones. They came about 6:30 and didn't require signature.  My case came on Saturday which is good since I'm such a clutz.  Awesomely, my new phone will run the Nike+ running app so I ran with my phone on Sunday rather than my IPod and the foot clip.  I'm sure it's more accurate for distance although I guess the clip would come in handy if I ran on a treadmill. 

Our other question was whether we could listen to music from ITunes on our phones.  I found an app called Double Twist. It requires install on the PC and the phone but seems relatively easy to use.  It converted our ITunes music (or part of it) and then you can hook up the phone and select playlists.  There seem to be some issues with my not understanding keeping things up to date or something but I'm cautiously optimistic that it will do what it needs to do.  I ordered a arm band for ChocolateWife and I to share to go run with our phones and use them for music. 

Nike Running or maybe not Nike Running

A few months after I started running, I got a Nike+.  I was very excited about it and absolutely committed to using it to track my runs, know how far I’d gone, and track my total miles.  I celebrated each milestone – reaching the different Nike+ colors or my first 100 mile month. At times it didn’t seem calibrated correctly but I tried to get it relatively accurate.  I’ve always felt very motivated by seeing the numbers on the screen. 

And I felt like one of the disappointments was that Nike+ was only available on the IPhone and IPod Touch.  Well now it’s available on Android but my phone is not compatible (let’s just say new enough). 

And a few months ago Nike Running started sending out some e-mails to get users excited or maybe warned that the entire website would be changing.  And by the way, challenges would be off line for 3-4 months.  Now the new website is online.  It has some pretty new graphics but I can’t tell that I have a color any longer and there are no challenges right now. 

But worse than that, when I tried to sync up my IPod after my Saturday run (13.8 miles), it would not sync.  I walked 5 miles Sunday and that didn’t sync.  Nike’s advice as they tweeted – reset your IPod – meaning that I will never get those miles.  So I reset my IPod which took so long that I didn’t even record my next run (over 4 miles) and today when I tried to use the IPod, it would not disconnect safely so I missed another 4.6 miles of credit. 

And now I’m wondering how much I care.  If there are no more colors and no more challenges (at least for a while) and I log everything on dailymile anyway, do I care about Nike running?  If I need to know distance, I can use the RunKeeper app on my phone or map it on gmaps.  Otherwise, I can just estimate it.  Yes, I want to listen to music and podcasts on my IPod, but I just don’t know that I care about the Nike+ website any longer…

Running Totals - January to June

At the beginning of the year I joined a 1000 mile challenge on the Nike+ site.  I've never managed 1000 miles in a year and I would like to reach that this year.  Through 06/30 I have run 538 (not all those are synced because Nike + is having some sort of connection issue).  I'd say I'm on pace to reach my goal if I just keep on. 

500+ Running in 2012

I went over 500 miles for the year yesterday according to Nike+. Actually 506 and it's only 6/11. I'd like to reach 1100 or at least 1000 this year so I feel like I'm doing well so far.

Purple!

Black is the next (and last) level. It is 1552 miles away or as far as I've run already. I expect it to take me 18 months or so to reach it.

Last Day Blue!

Today should be my last day to be Blue in Nike Running. I turned blue on May 9th of last year so it's taken me nearly 11 months to go from 999 km/620 miles to 2499 km/1552 miles (932 miles). Purple goes to 5000 km/3106 miles so I'll probably be purple for at least 18 months before I turn black.

January Total - 109!

Yes! For the first time I've run over 100 miles in a month. I believe my previous high was around 97 miles. I blew that away. 109.59 to be exact. Every month I join a 100 mile challenge on NikeRunning and this is the first time I've ever made it.

I don't know about February though. I'll have a 14 mile run this weekend and the half-marathon February 19th but the rest of the month will probably be pretty light with taper week and then recovery week.

2011 Running Totals

It's the first of the year and time to revisit my running goals. At the start of the year I signed up for various Nike + challenges. I did not really expect to meet the 1000 mile challenge and I didn't. In a way I'm glad I didn't come closer. If I had been within 15 or 20 miles, I might have gone a little crazy trying to meet it the past week. As it is, I'm pretty happy with nearly 962 miles over 221 workouts.

Next year I want to run/walk > 1100 miles including breaking 2:30 in a half.

If I walked 500 miles and if I walked 500 more

I knew this was coming but did not remember how close the milestone was until I got home from my walk Monday (coincidentally my birthday).  I synced up my IPod and there was a video (Nike calls them "attaboys") which would not play.  That made me wonder why I had an attaboy so I hovered my mouse over the menu and saw that I have now run 1000+ miles in around 14 months since getting the Nike+.  I hope the next 1000 will be healthy and that I reach it before my next birthday.