I did do my run today, as mentioned in the previous post. Today's was 5 miles. Nothing fancy. No speedwork or hills, just 5 miles. Went pretty smoothly, particularly since the cold front is still in place. In fact, I finally caved and turned on the heat because I don't want to get sick again if I can avoid it. That's how great this cold front is.
In the small pond during today's run I thought that I saw three ducks standing on an alligator. Alas, the three ducks were standing on a partially submerged sandbank. But how awesome would that have been?
I have something slightly embarrassing to confess. It's my new motivational song. Now, I don't actually run with music on because I think that learning how to be bored is an important part of training for a long event. This may sound weird, but it's something that I observed when coaching rowing. It's very hard to concentrate sometimes while exercising. With crew, you need to be completely, 100% focused when you are in the boat. That can be really hard to do when you start, but I feel that it's part of becoming a better athlete. There are no distractions. When I started running, I felt the same way: that you should concentrate on....well.....for lack of a better word, the boringness it. But getting to a point where long runs are not boring is a good sign of progress. So I don't run with music (I do distract myself while running, just not with extras). I mentioned a few weeks ago that every so often, Bob Seger's 'Hollywood Nights' comes flying into my head out of nowhere -- actually that happened again today. I have no shame in this. In fact, I basically adore Bob Seger, so that's all good. My embarrassing song is much worse: Britney Spears 'Gimme More.' Yes. I just admitted that publicly.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Cold front, new toy, who could ask for anything more?
Another cold front is here! Right now it is noon and 54F. Awesome! Can't wait to go running later.
Yesterday, I made up the 3M that I didn't do on Tuesday, so all is good there. I was in Gainesville and ran an relatively uninspiring route around a neighborhood, but it fulfilled the purpose. The weather was ideal; I went near sunset and it was absolutely great. Probably in the 50s or maybe even the high 40s. Also, the new toy worked like a charm (once I figured out that it automatically switched from distance in feet to distance in miles...). The run itself went very well and I had lots of strength at the end to sprint the finish.
The toy said that I hit an 8:10 mile split near the end.
This is my favorite toy EVER.
Yesterday, I made up the 3M that I didn't do on Tuesday, so all is good there. I was in Gainesville and ran an relatively uninspiring route around a neighborhood, but it fulfilled the purpose. The weather was ideal; I went near sunset and it was absolutely great. Probably in the 50s or maybe even the high 40s. Also, the new toy worked like a charm (once I figured out that it automatically switched from distance in feet to distance in miles...). The run itself went very well and I had lots of strength at the end to sprint the finish.
The toy said that I hit an 8:10 mile split near the end.
This is my favorite toy EVER.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Day off....but......
Someone got a new toy:
An AWESOME NEW TOY!!!! This is the only object I have ever owned for which I want to read the entire owner's manual.
I was supposed to run today and didn't because I wasn't feeling great (and it's hot). Instead, I will do my run tomorrow. It's three miles. If you can imagine.
I was supposed to run today and didn't because I wasn't feeling great (and it's hot). Instead, I will do my run tomorrow. It's three miles. If you can imagine.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Last of the semi-long runs
This post is the third in a three-part series to get caught up with my running exploits after having been out of town for Thanksgiving weekend. Although actually it talks about today's run, so technically it is still on time.
Back in Florida, back to the hot runs. Although luckily, this morning wasn't too bad, from a temperature/humidity standpoint: it was actually in the 50s to start and didn't get over the mid-60s. I was hoping to get up early and go, but didn't have much oomph to start my day, so I started around 8am. Today was 10 miles, the last serious distance before the marathon. Everything is much shorter from here on out and I think that the longest remaining runs are 5 miles.
However, I still have this super-annoying head cold! So the weather didn't seem quite so great because I was sweaty the whole time anyway. It was somewhat helpful to have a point of comparison for running while sick since I didn't really in Detroit with the conditions varying so much from normal. What I learned was that running while you are sick is not fun. I didn't feel comfortable really at any point, although the run itself went relatively well. Perhaps it is all in my head (HA! Get it?)
Today I also experienced my first technical glitch of the entire training period. I have to say that this isn't too bad considering that I managed to get through about 340 miles without one.* I'm not sure that today's run was exactly 10 miles, but that's okay. Around mile 7.8, the distance tracker seemed to freeze. Either that, or it was the longest 0.1 mile I have ever run. Flashbacks to the turkey trot with no 5-mile marker. Then suddenly, I had run 8.3 miles. Ditto at 8.8. In other words, there was some weird 'increments of 0.5' thing going on, then things were fine. However, I'm not sure that it tracked the distance exactly right. I still ran to what the phone claimed was 10 miles. And that will just have to do.
*Incidentally, that is an insane number. I have run over 340 miles training for this thing. Insane. That is further than from here to Savannah, GA.
Back in Florida, back to the hot runs. Although luckily, this morning wasn't too bad, from a temperature/humidity standpoint: it was actually in the 50s to start and didn't get over the mid-60s. I was hoping to get up early and go, but didn't have much oomph to start my day, so I started around 8am. Today was 10 miles, the last serious distance before the marathon. Everything is much shorter from here on out and I think that the longest remaining runs are 5 miles.
However, I still have this super-annoying head cold! So the weather didn't seem quite so great because I was sweaty the whole time anyway. It was somewhat helpful to have a point of comparison for running while sick since I didn't really in Detroit with the conditions varying so much from normal. What I learned was that running while you are sick is not fun. I didn't feel comfortable really at any point, although the run itself went relatively well. Perhaps it is all in my head (HA! Get it?)
Today I also experienced my first technical glitch of the entire training period. I have to say that this isn't too bad considering that I managed to get through about 340 miles without one.* I'm not sure that today's run was exactly 10 miles, but that's okay. Around mile 7.8, the distance tracker seemed to freeze. Either that, or it was the longest 0.1 mile I have ever run. Flashbacks to the turkey trot with no 5-mile marker. Then suddenly, I had run 8.3 miles. Ditto at 8.8. In other words, there was some weird 'increments of 0.5' thing going on, then things were fine. However, I'm not sure that it tracked the distance exactly right. I still ran to what the phone claimed was 10 miles. And that will just have to do.
*Incidentally, that is an insane number. I have run over 340 miles training for this thing. Insane. That is further than from here to Savannah, GA.
Running in cold > Running in hot
This post is the second in a three-part series to get caught up with my running exploits after having been out of town for Thanksgiving weekend.
Saturday morning another Detroit run remained. I was staying downtown, so the run went around Comerica Park -- which looks super nice by the way, I want to visit in the summer and see a few games. This time the distance was only 4 miles. I say 'only' because after the past few weeks, 4 miles feels like a walk around the block.
Except that this walk took place with a wind chill of 20F. It really wasn't so bad in the sun -- if you can called Michigan sun 'sun' -- but when those wind gusts hit, it was not pleasant. That being said, I still preferred it over running in the hot. And my time was better than most Florida runs as well.
However, it is entirely possible that running in 20F wind chill was not helpful for my cold, since it continued to stick around. Blech. Enough! I know that it's common to get sick during taper time, but still. Irritating. And annoying!
Saturday morning another Detroit run remained. I was staying downtown, so the run went around Comerica Park -- which looks super nice by the way, I want to visit in the summer and see a few games. This time the distance was only 4 miles. I say 'only' because after the past few weeks, 4 miles feels like a walk around the block.
Except that this walk took place with a wind chill of 20F. It really wasn't so bad in the sun -- if you can called Michigan sun 'sun' -- but when those wind gusts hit, it was not pleasant. That being said, I still preferred it over running in the hot. And my time was better than most Florida runs as well.
However, it is entirely possible that running in 20F wind chill was not helpful for my cold, since it continued to stick around. Blech. Enough! I know that it's common to get sick during taper time, but still. Irritating. And annoying!
Turkey Trot in Detroit
This post is the first in a three-part series to get caught up with my running exploits after having been out of town for Thanksgiving weekend.
Thursday morning was Thanksgiving, an event that I celebrated by flying to Detroit to see the New England Patriots stage a late-game rally and beat the pants off of the Detroit Lions. Tom Brady's QB rating was perfect. I realize that this is in no way relevant to this blog, but it's a fact that I will not get sick of anytime soon.
Speaking of sick, I got sick. I caught a cold last week and ran through it on Tuesday, hoping that it was nothing more than a minor inconvenience. Unfortunately, it continued on Thursday. Just a head cold, so no reason to stop running (I would if it became a chest cold), yet not ideal. I was a bit concerned because the weather was supposed to be in the 30s and raining. Just in the 30s would be manageable, but with rain? Ick. Luckily the rain held off for the duration of the race since I would definitely put 'rainy and cold' in the Top Three of my least favorite weather conditions.
The run itself went quite well. So well that I thought I might have a new PR for 10K time, but in fact did not (boo). Probably the fact that I didn't really warm up to race pace beforehand combined with the fact that I had a cold did not help. And I brought 'performance gear' from a Florida race thinking that it was 'performance gear,' when really it just trapped heat (*why* this was distributed for a Florida race, I may never know). Plus it was a relatively congested start, so I probably didn't get a good pace for a bit.
Also, I totally missed the 5-mile marker. I was feeling pretty good through mile 4, so my plan was to crank it through mile 5 (I did not take the phone on the grounds that it might rain). Hard to do when you totally miss mile 5, even though I was pretty sure that mile 4 was awfully long. Ah well. My goal right now isn't to PR in a 10K race.....even though it sure would have been nice......
Thursday morning was Thanksgiving, an event that I celebrated by flying to Detroit to see the New England Patriots stage a late-game rally and beat the pants off of the Detroit Lions. Tom Brady's QB rating was perfect. I realize that this is in no way relevant to this blog, but it's a fact that I will not get sick of anytime soon.
Speaking of sick, I got sick. I caught a cold last week and ran through it on Tuesday, hoping that it was nothing more than a minor inconvenience. Unfortunately, it continued on Thursday. Just a head cold, so no reason to stop running (I would if it became a chest cold), yet not ideal. I was a bit concerned because the weather was supposed to be in the 30s and raining. Just in the 30s would be manageable, but with rain? Ick. Luckily the rain held off for the duration of the race since I would definitely put 'rainy and cold' in the Top Three of my least favorite weather conditions.
The run itself went quite well. So well that I thought I might have a new PR for 10K time, but in fact did not (boo). Probably the fact that I didn't really warm up to race pace beforehand combined with the fact that I had a cold did not help. And I brought 'performance gear' from a Florida race thinking that it was 'performance gear,' when really it just trapped heat (*why* this was distributed for a Florida race, I may never know). Plus it was a relatively congested start, so I probably didn't get a good pace for a bit.
Also, I totally missed the 5-mile marker. I was feeling pretty good through mile 4, so my plan was to crank it through mile 5 (I did not take the phone on the grounds that it might rain). Hard to do when you totally miss mile 5, even though I was pretty sure that mile 4 was awfully long. Ah well. My goal right now isn't to PR in a 10K race.....even though it sure would have been nice......
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Taper Time Begins with a Challenge
Since I started training, I've noticed that my body sometimes craves weird things. This goes beyond those times when I find myself hording carbs in my shopping cart, although that is one good example. What is even weirder is when I find my body 'craving' things that have nothing to do with food. For instance, after one of my long runs, I was getting ready to go watch my football game at the bar and I realized that my feet craved for me to wear running shoes. Seriously. I can't explain it any better than to say it is a craving.
Today, I had a 5-mile run. It was supposed to be 5 miles with hills, but I didn't feel like running over in the hill neighborhood. Several factors conspired to make me less motivated: the fact that the sun goes down at 5:30 now; the fact that I did not get home until 5; and the fact that I don't like running in the dark any more for fear of tripping and bashing up my knees (or worse). I couldn't go running in the morning because I was in Orlando. Yes. Again.
I came awfully close to not doing today's run. Probably closer than I have come before. For one, I just wasn't in the mood. Also, I got a massage this afternoon which helped take out all of the running kinks and I was enjoying being able to move my neck freely again (the massage finished at 4:45, hence why I did not get home until 5pm). And the weather, while not vile, is not ideal for running. Today's heat index was in the mid-80s. Ugh.
However, somehow my body craved (?) going for a run around my little condo association neighborhood. By 'little,' I mean this thing loops at 0.7 miles. Why I wanted to do this, I don't know. It required that I circle 7 times around the little loop, then add on a tiny bit. But for some reason, this made me happy and it really wasn't so bad. There is decent lighting at night here, which is not true of all neighborhoods. I ran on the road, so no uneven sidewalks to trip me. It is a loop, but it isn't a terrible loop as far as scenery goes. Just chalk this up to another one of my weird 'cravings,' I guess. And that is another 5 miles that I really did not want to run done!
Today, I had a 5-mile run. It was supposed to be 5 miles with hills, but I didn't feel like running over in the hill neighborhood. Several factors conspired to make me less motivated: the fact that the sun goes down at 5:30 now; the fact that I did not get home until 5; and the fact that I don't like running in the dark any more for fear of tripping and bashing up my knees (or worse). I couldn't go running in the morning because I was in Orlando. Yes. Again.
I came awfully close to not doing today's run. Probably closer than I have come before. For one, I just wasn't in the mood. Also, I got a massage this afternoon which helped take out all of the running kinks and I was enjoying being able to move my neck freely again (the massage finished at 4:45, hence why I did not get home until 5pm). And the weather, while not vile, is not ideal for running. Today's heat index was in the mid-80s. Ugh.
However, somehow my body craved (?) going for a run around my little condo association neighborhood. By 'little,' I mean this thing loops at 0.7 miles. Why I wanted to do this, I don't know. It required that I circle 7 times around the little loop, then add on a tiny bit. But for some reason, this made me happy and it really wasn't so bad. There is decent lighting at night here, which is not true of all neighborhoods. I ran on the road, so no uneven sidewalks to trip me. It is a loop, but it isn't a terrible loop as far as scenery goes. Just chalk this up to another one of my weird 'cravings,' I guess. And that is another 5 miles that I really did not want to run done!
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