Sep 28
2009

I ran 12 miles (just below 10-minute pace), mostly in the dark, on a clear morning in Fern Creek this morning.  When away from main roads, I could clearly see more stars in the sky than I ever did growing up in my old neighborhood.  The sun came up by mile 10.

The wind was brisk for the first four miles, the pace sluggish from Saturday’s long run, my throat dehydrated from the remains of a sinus infection turned hacking cough.  All things considered, a good run:

Continuing with the direction begun on Saturday’s 22-miler, I decided that running outside was going to be my best option for getting my miles in today, and for staying healthy the rest of the week:

  • No treadmill means no artificially forced pace, too fast or slow.
  • No treadmill means the inclines are realistic.
  • No treadmill means I don’t have to rush through my workout because I’m watching the clock or trying to finish before the toddler wakes up.

RunningAHEAD – Strings_n_88keys’s log: View Workout.

Tags:



Trackback  •  Posted in motivation, workout commentary  


Sep 26
2009

I’ve been mostly “treadmill-bound” for the last several weeks.  Part of it is due to schedule conflicts–it’s hard to run outside when your only options are in the middle of the night and before the sun is up in the morning, especially when you have kids to watch.  However, part of my treadmill is due to making excuses on why I couldn’t run outside.  Here they are:

  1. It’s hot (took care of that one this summer)
  2. It’s rainy out (I added this one after overcoming my aversion to hot weather)
  3. My wife worked last night, so I can’t go run all over the place at 5:30 am [on a Saturday]
  4. Midday runs in my neighborhood are congested and cross busy streets.
  5. I can watch football most of the day if I run my long run on the treadmill.

I let my wife sleep in today, so I was going to run the treadmill downstairs for 3 1/2 hours for 22 miles.  I decided that, for some reason, that wouldn’t be very productive or enjoyable.

Second option, I decided to work out a 7-1/3 mile loop to run 3 times.  I figured that I’d just attempt to bail out of the run after the first loop.

Instead, 2 miles into the loop run, I decided to go catch up with my wife at Seneca Park for a Filipino gathering (starting in Fern Creek)… here’s the map for the first half:

Second half: I hung out a little while there before attempting to continue on to the Cherokee Park Scenic Loop [almost found it, too]–my wife was headed to Bellarmine for the Irish festival, so I planned to finish up there. Getting lost in the hills between Cherokee and Seneca was rough, as was the muscle pain from stopping my run for an extended period of time, but I managed to fight through it:

This run was actually slower than my last 20+ miler, but the average incline was about 1% greater, and the stop in the middle really killed my momentum.

Tags: , ,



Trackback  •  Posted in motivation, workout commentary  


Sep 17
2009

Her story:  How to Lose 55 lbs and Run a Marathon in 7 Months

I completely empathize with the experience of going out way too fast in the marathon, despite the fact that in my first marathon, I did it to myself.  [She was trying to stick with a pace group.]

55 pounds in 7 months and running a marathon in 4:10.

Of course, she’s not done.  She’s going to qualify for Boston–3:40:59.

As she says at the end of her story:

I truly think that anyone can do whatever it is they want as long as they have a goal, motivation, and most of all, support. Ordinary people can do extraordinary things.

Tags: ,



Trackback  •  Posted in other runners  


Sep 1
2009

No, I don’t mean that, do I? Ok, then, as long as you just read it for the pictures, it’s okay to keep it.

Actually, I have nothing against the popular running hobbyist magazines. However, you must realize what a magazine is. Magazines have several new messages every issue. Otherwise, why would you need the next issue?

While some may even take issue with some of the advice presented in the articles, I think there’s a greater danger: lack of consistency. Just like you can’t chase every mutual fund that a money magazine recommends, or go with the diet that you’ve obeyed the best that day, you can’t change training plans on a weekly or monthly basis.

Yet, that is just what will happen if you take the articles to heart: you’ll switch plans. You’ll switch because the first thing that will happen is the doubt that you can pull this off, that this plan is right for you. It happens on term papers, on novels, on investments, and certainly on a 16 week training plan. To compound the psychological effects, your body will be giving you feedback through all of the tough workouts, through all the pushing yourself a little further. Your body has to restructure itself to grow, and while that process should not cause excruciating pain, it will probably cause some discomfort.

Whether you’re going from couch to 5k, training for your first half-marathon, or taking the plunge for your first marathon, stretching your limits is not comfortable. Stepping out of your comfort zone is how you grow. Revisiting that feeling, again and again, is how you excel.

If you’re doing you first training for a specific distance, any plan that increases weekly mileage an average of 5% per week and mixes in different speed runs will work. Go fast once per week, go long once per week, and enjoy all of your runs.

Good luck.

Added from an @runtowin comment:

Some runner’s magazines concentrate on local stories and are way better than the national ones anyway (New England Runner)

Tags: ,



Trackback  •  Posted in motivation, rant, training plan