Run away! BOO! Halloween week runs, 10/25/09-10/31/09

[OakLeaf]

Here's the link my IM training plan used:

http://www.bodyresults.com/e2gluteusmedius.asp

Thanks for that!

This one looks like a lot more fun though, I'm trying to figure out how to do it.

[colby]

I was in Mexico from Thursday to Monday. Ran twice while I was there. Friday was my 40th birthday, and it just felt so *right* to get up and go for an hour long run first thing in the morning, before the sun was fully up. I've struggled a bit with this particular milestone birthday, so going for a run and reminding myself that I'm a young and fit 40 was the way to go. Plus, you can't help but feel attractive when you run in Mexico. Any car with men in it beeped the horn. Men waved or whistled. Sure, they do that to any woman, but hey. There are worse things than having someone whistle at you on your 40th.

Happy Birthday, Susan. It sounds awesome! (Maybe you should have waited a couple extra days before coming back to the NW though )

[colby]

OR, like my DH likes to say to me, you just accept that it is.
You just happen to be fast.
We girls often grossly underestimate ourselves.
You've been training hard. You're fast. You like doing this. So enjoy it!

This feels like a "repeat after me in front of the mirror" exercise... I'm good enough, I'm fast enough, and dog gone it I am a runner!

[Susan Otcenas]

Happy Birthday, Susan. It sounds awesome! (Maybe you should have waited a couple extra days before coming back to the NW though )

No kidding. We deplaned directly onto the tarmac at PDX on Monday night at 9pm. The blast of cold wet air was like a physical assault. I went from swimming in a bikini in the Sea of Cortez that morning, to wearing multiple layers and shivering in the car on the drive home.

Funny thing, though.... Not finding much sympathy from anyone who wasn't there with me.

[katluvr]

This feels like a "repeat after me in front of the mirror" exercise... I'm good enough, I'm fast enough, and dog gone it I am a runner!

I think I may have to print that out and put on my mirro.
I am definitely not "fast enough" YET...but only week 2 in the TP AND still lots o' heat!

K

[katluvr]

Ok, now I am posting a reply to myself

I thought, yeah, I'll type up Colby's quote...

Instead of "fast enough" it came out "I'm fat enough".
Must be my true feeling there! Dog gone it I'm fat enough!!!

[OakLeaf]

Got the 8-miler I meant to do on Wednesday. It was an amazingly beautiful day, probably the last 70° we'll see for a while. Kind of windy - a better day for running than cycling.

Man, my legs are still heavy and slow, slow, slow. I don't know if it's the flu shot or my stupid half-assed recovery plan from two Sundays ago. Half-assed training = works okay. Half-assed recovery = not so much.

[Tuckervill]

Y'all know I'm not a runner, right? Yet, I've been running M-W-F since...well this was my third week. I've been doing the 1-mile course (+/-) mapped out in the neighborhood behind my gym. I just decided I needed to ramp up the cardio to jump start the weight loss, and I figured I could run/walk that 3 times a week.

I didn't keep up with my time the first couple of times. But the first time I was able to run all the way around the cul-de-sac which is the halfway point on the run. I'm such a running weenie that I couldn't get past it the next time--thought it was a fluke the first time, and since then I've been running a block, walking a block, whatever.

What I've noticed--and I've done this only 9 times--is that during the time that I'm actually running, I'm getting much faster. I run until my heart rate maxes out and then I walk. It varies by the day how far that is.

Last week I just looked at the clock in the gym when I left and when I returned. That was right around 18-20 minutes. Then I remembered my Ipod has a stopwatch! Monday's time was 16:45, Wednesdays was 15:38 and today's was 14:38!! ???

How did that happen so fast? Is that normal?

I've decided that my knees need more time between runs or I'm going to injure myself. So, I'm going to run M-Th for a few weeks and see if that helps. Do you think that will slow my progress signficantly?

My goal is to be able to run (all the way) in under 12 minutes, and not be dead afterwards. Which is easily doable with consistent effort, don't you think? Without destroying my knees?

I don't really want to BE a runner. I just want to be ABLE to run a bit.

So that's my run report! lol.

Karen

[colby]

What I've noticed--and I've done this only 9 times--is that during the time that I'm actually running, I'm getting much faster. I run until my heart rate maxes out and then I walk. It varies by the day how far that is.

Last week I just looked at the clock in the gym when I left and when I returned. That was right around 18-20 minutes. Then I remembered my Ipod has a stopwatch! Monday's time was 16:45, Wednesdays was 15:38 and today's was 14:38!! ???

How did that happen so fast? Is that normal?

I've decided that my knees need more time between runs or I'm going to injure myself. So, I'm going to run M-Th for a few weeks and see if that helps. Do you think that will slow my progress signficantly?

My goal is to be able to run (all the way) in under 12 minutes, and not be dead afterwards. Which is easily doable with consistent effort, don't you think? Without destroying my knees?

I don't really want to BE a runner. I just want to be ABLE to run a bit.

So that's my run report! lol.

Karen

Not running every day is absolutely fine - and probably a good idea. You might alternate days - run/ride, run/gym, etc, that way you don't get burnt out on it and give your body a chance to recover. That much improvement isn't a huge surprise when you first start, since you're not really starting from zero cardio, you're just not a runner (yet). As you learn how it feels, what level of effort you can do comfortably, etc, you'll improve, then it'll kind of flatten out. You'll want to mix up your workouts to include maybe two loops but half walking, one loop running slow but no walking, that kind of thing. (Then you're more likely to keep doing it, too!) You'll notice that a) the amount of time you can run will increase, and/or b) the heart rate while you're running will decrease as you adapt to it.

You could probably scout a couch to 5k plan to see kind of how people are doing something similar. Good luck!

PS: All advice is YMMV - IANAT (I am not a trainer!). I like lots of input though, so I like to give lots of input too!

[Crankin]

I went for a trail run yesterday. For some reason, I just couldn't get the will up to go ride; it was 55 out, but cloudy and raw. I kept waiting for the sun "to appear mid day," as the weather had predicted, but there was only a glimmer by 1:30, so I headed over to Estabrook Woods. As usual, I was a tad overdressed, but nothing I couldn't handle.
So today was the first time I used my Garmin, since starting up running again, 3 weeks ago. At this point, I figured it would be more detrimental to my psyche to see how slow I am! I was right. My trail runs are always slower than on the road, but this was way slower than I thought. On the other hand, the GPS signal was not coming through for a good part of the run, so I take it kind of with a grain of salt. I ran 3 miles exactly, with some walking, especially around obstacles. There's a lot of rock gardens on this trail, and then there were the dogs running ahead of their owners. Twice I had to stop to let dogs sniff me. One started jumping up and the owner said, "Oh he's going after that thing on your wrist." Nice, huh?
The way out is about a 2% uphill grade. I stopped at the turn around point, ate half a Luna Bar and ran back, which felt a bit easier. According to my stats I did a 14.20 pace, which really sucks, since I checked back in the history and my last trail run was at a 12:00 pace. But, it was really pretty and my quads are much less sore than when I run on the road.
The hip is still giving me fits but I am waiting to see the endocrinologist about the osteoporosis; then I will schedule the MRI if she thinks it's disc related and not related to maybe a fracture. Since I totally did no impact stuff for 10 weeks, I tend to think on the side of the disc theory, since it didn't improve that much. I'm stretching and icing and avoiding certain shoes, which seems to help.
No running until Monday or Tuesday.

[Tuckervill]

Thanks, Colby. I do get bored easily, so changing it up will help. I've noticed that even though it actually is taking less time, it FEELS even shorter now mentally. Like I got used to the scenery and I don't even notice it.

I think I mislead you...I was runing M then W then F, and now I'm going to run M and Th. Two times a week. More time between for my knees to recover.

I am especially looking forward to my heart rate adjusting so it doesn't shoot way up. That's truly what keeps me hating running (and running in the army).

It's also all mostly mental for me. I would prefer to run or ride a loop at all times, rather than an out-and-back. When I was doing this route as part of boot camp (people just left me in the dust, so I turned around when I saw the fastest guy coming back, so I wouldn't hold up the class), I had a huge mental block against walking around the island in that cul-de-sac! Now it seems I'm AT the cul-de-sac before I know it! After only 3 weeks. yay!

Karen

[OakLeaf]

I would prefer to run or ride a loop at all times, rather than an out-and-back.

It made me SOOOOOO happy when I could finally run 8 miles, the shortest loop from my house! Out and back is boring.

Do you know why running hurts your knees? Is there something you can do to avoid that? Form, myofascial release, strengthening, ??? My personal experience is that two days a week is enough to maintain, but if I want to get faster or stronger, it has to be three days. JME, IANATE (either) But I would think that either there's something unavoidable that makes running hurt your knees - in which case maybe it just isn't your sport - or you can avoid it, in which case you should?

[Jolt]

Overall it went well. It was cloudy/misty and in the mid 50s this morning when we started. The course was one big loop of 2 miles around the perimeter of the farm and then a 1-mile loop inside. Not too hilly, just slightly rollilng. The very beginning was uphill on a gravel road, then the course was mostly on grass and dirt (or I should say MUD)! After turning off of the gravel road we got to the first obstacle almost immediately, which was a bench to jump over right into a huge mud puddle. It was funny watching people try to stay out of the water as much as possible--I just went right through it! Not too long after that I started feeling pretty rough and realized I had started out too fast (easy to do when you're in the middle of a bunch of people and are excited), but fortunately was able to settle into a reasonable pace and started feeling better soon. There were a few hay bales to jump over throughout the course and one was where a golf course abuts the farm--a group of golfers happened to be standing nearby and commented on my technique for getting over it, which was kind of funny (the comment was positive--I had accelerated a bit to launch myself over the bale and they said "now that's how to do it!"). Going into the second loop, we had to run up that gravel road again and I took a little walk break, which I wasn't that happy about doing (it was embarrassing and also allowed two people to pass me, including one I had passed earlier) but felt I needed to recover a little before heading into that unknown territory. The second loop had a few more hay bales and a 5-foot ladder stile over an electric fence; the stile caused a bit of a bottleneck as only one person could go over at a time. A lot of us climbed to the top and just jumped off into the pile of hay that was at the bottom, rather than going down the steps. After that it wasn't long before the finish chute was in sight. I was able to muster the energy for a final sprint and pass one person just before the finish--maybe I COULD have gone faster throughout the course! My time was 29:11, so I did manage to beat my predicted time of 30:00 but not by much (and still, a speed demon I am not--I came in 59th out of just over 100 runners). After the race they had a little barbecue, which was nice, and gave out the prizes to the age group winners. It was fun and I could see myself doing this race again, even though it was a bit of a drive to get there. BTW, I saw one other runner in VFFs there! The ability to toss them in the washing machine is a big advantage after a race like this.

[OakLeaf]

That sounds like great fun, Jolt! Any excuse to play in the mud.

Give yourself credit for outdoing your predicted time, 49 seconds is forever in a race of that distance (over :15 quicker pace).

[colby]

Wow, Jolt, that sounds super fun. Running like a kid again Congrats!