[how am i suddenly blogging twice a day here? it will end soon i'm sure; i suspect this is hysterical displacement activity, so as to avoid the thing i'm really supposed to be writing for work.]
tonight i ran four fast-ish miles. well, not really. i ran one warm-up mile, but i sped up throughout the mile and it beeped in at 8:50. so then i decided to run a fast-ish 5k. and i did! 3 miles at 8:28, 8:29, 8:30, and then the last .1 at about 8:20 pace.
so, that's not actually fast, but it's fast for me lately, and it's definitely fast for me when it's humid (it was dusk, and it was not hot at all, but it was like 80% humidity.) and it felt really good!
or rather, it felt really good during the 5k. it fairly sucked during the first mile -- i felt like i was running in concrete, like i was putting in tons of energy and getting back the cadence of a sloth. i ran the first half mile at a 9:20 pace, and then i sped up a bit and it was hell, and i did it a bit more, and then more. each time it was hellish to get faster, but then it quickly plateaued in hellishness, so then i thought i could speed up a bit again.
and then somehow around mile 1, it started to feel easier. and from then on, for the rest of the run: 8:30 felt like 9:30 usually does. what? i could kind of *cruise*, if out of breath, at an 8:30 pace. this is unheard of recently. how did this happen?
so i have a new theory, and it is this: to run fast, the first little while has to suck. maybe i have gotten too cautious with my 'start slow, don't hurt yourself' theory. maybe all i should run comfortably is like 400 metres, and then i should start speeding up. perhaps whatever pace i get myself into during the first mile or so is what will feel 'normal' for the rest of the run. is this nuts?
... obviously i don't think i can now run half marathons at 8:30 pace. but i am going to try doing my alleged 'tempo' runs like this, and see what happens. i did four miles today -- maybe i can do five miles like this next week? hmmmm.
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
taking opinions on september
so i want to run a trail race at the end of september. a particular race, about an hour from my house.
there is a bit of history here: i was signed up for this race in 2010. but then three weeks beforehand, my retinas needed reattaching (yeah, that happened) so my surgeon said i had to not do anything 'jarring' for a while. and trail races are kinda the definition of jarring.
anyway, with one thing and another i've never made it back -- but i think 2014 should be the year!
the issue is the distance. there are 3 options at this race: the course is 7.3k, and you can do one, two or three laps. the longest one is just over a half marathon, right? the plan in 2010 was to do the full three laps, so why not, right? i'm not as fast as i was then, but i'm definitely still strong.
right.
but look at the elevation profile.
the race director's description of the course includes statements like 'massive climb' and 'screaming downhill'. and in my previous experience (from the related race i'm already running in july), this director uses the term 'rolling hills' to mean: if you trip on this hill, you will roll to {the bottom, your doom}. so presumably 'screaming downhill' means: start screaming now, while you're still at home on the couch.
... so. three laps, you think?
there is a bit of history here: i was signed up for this race in 2010. but then three weeks beforehand, my retinas needed reattaching (yeah, that happened) so my surgeon said i had to not do anything 'jarring' for a while. and trail races are kinda the definition of jarring.
anyway, with one thing and another i've never made it back -- but i think 2014 should be the year!
the issue is the distance. there are 3 options at this race: the course is 7.3k, and you can do one, two or three laps. the longest one is just over a half marathon, right? the plan in 2010 was to do the full three laps, so why not, right? i'm not as fast as i was then, but i'm definitely still strong.
right.
but look at the elevation profile.
the race director's description of the course includes statements like 'massive climb' and 'screaming downhill'. and in my previous experience (from the related race i'm already running in july), this director uses the term 'rolling hills' to mean: if you trip on this hill, you will roll to {the bottom, your doom}. so presumably 'screaming downhill' means: start screaming now, while you're still at home on the couch.
... so. three laps, you think?
Monday, June 23, 2014
october race plan!
oooh, right! i forgot to post this.
i picked an october goal race: Bay State half marathon! it's in lowell, massachusetts, and my friends live there, and they are lovely and they make PIE, and we have other friends that live in long beach, and they are going to fly out and at least one of them is going to run it with me! (well, run the same course. but lots faster. but i don't mind. i know they will save me pie.)
so, that! october 19th, i'll be running. this course is known for being fast so i would like to come up with an ambitious goal time... however, first i would like to make it through the summer without heat stroke or death by dew point or any other damn fool things.
so i will keep consistent all summer, and we'll see where i am at the end of august.
but wooo! i'm excited for this one.
i picked an october goal race: Bay State half marathon! it's in lowell, massachusetts, and my friends live there, and they are lovely and they make PIE, and we have other friends that live in long beach, and they are going to fly out and at least one of them is going to run it with me! (well, run the same course. but lots faster. but i don't mind. i know they will save me pie.)
so, that! october 19th, i'll be running. this course is known for being fast so i would like to come up with an ambitious goal time... however, first i would like to make it through the summer without heat stroke or death by dew point or any other damn fool things.
so i will keep consistent all summer, and we'll see where i am at the end of august.
but wooo! i'm excited for this one.
updates from the run, often in the rain, often at night
actually, i've been running a lot, now that i'm hear to talk about it. i've been been running three days a week, but i've also run three of the last four days.
one of those days it POURED and i was running with my iPhone so it kind of turned into speed work. with an awkward hand-held-over-camera-hole look. (for a time afterwards it was scaring me by taking tremendously misty photos, but the next morning it had magically dried/sorted itself out.) since that run involved a beeline home, i ran the next day to complete the first one, but then i kind of wanted to run longer so i did. came home a goddamn sweaty mess, but.
another one of those days was tonight, when i ran over an hour and also lost a bunch of time to various wildlife adventures. to wit: 1. giving a wide berth to a skunk, 2. playing chicken with a deer till i managed to convince her to run back into the woods and not onto the road, 3. leaping into the air a little higher than planned when a frog did its own leaping. despite these distractions i managed to run about 7.5 miles, sometimes even hilly ones in something like 70 minutes, so that's not terrible.
it's also humid as fuck; really, i have to start running with water even when it's not hot, because half an hour in i start hallucinating water fountains which turn out to be garbage cans (talk about disappointing).
the only snag lately is that after hurting one of my groin muscles the other weekend, i managed to fix it quickly, only to pull THE OTHER groin muscle at an exercise class -- c'mon, body, this is ridiculous. apart from this nonsense, i have been doing a bunch of crosstraining, which is wise; not much swimming but you see the rain? yes.
anyway, i think everything groinal is back in order; today's running felt if not beautiful then at least consistent. although my Garmin refused to get a satellite because the sky was made of clouds or something, i felt like i was keeping a consistent pace... although now as i write that i remember i was chasing two undergrad girls for three miles, so actually rather than averaging 9 minute miles i was probably flailing for a bit and cruising the rest of the time. oh, well.
overall, i'm feeling pretty good about my running, and i think it's a lot to do with running at night. summer night running is kind of my favourite, even when it's humid. tonight i ran without music or podcasts, and i missed neither. there's that floating, gliding, automatic feeling, and when the sky is quite black it somehow feels like you're swimming.
have i tried describing this before, the feeling like i'm at the ichthyosaurus exhibit? er, well. so: when i was growing up, the Royal Ontario Museum had this dinosaur exhibit, and my favourite bit was this weird little underwater corner, which illustrated some underwater big animal (maybe a whale or something) getting attacked by two or three of these underwater dinosaurs, called ichthyosauri. (were they really dinosaurs? for all i know they were actually fish. this is not the point. it's a running blog. let's move on.) ... the point is that to make it look underwater, they had these blue black lights aimed at the back wall, constantly moving in a gently undulating manner, to simulate the quality of light underwater. right? and it was SO COOL. ... i mean the ichthyosaurs were also cool, but what i loved best was that quality of light. like being bathed in a serene and liquid witching hour.
and THAT is the feeling i get now, as a grownup, when i run in the summer at night.
plus, much less chance of getting ichthyosaured.
i assume.
... run on, folks.
one of those days it POURED and i was running with my iPhone so it kind of turned into speed work. with an awkward hand-held-over-camera-hole look. (for a time afterwards it was scaring me by taking tremendously misty photos, but the next morning it had magically dried/sorted itself out.) since that run involved a beeline home, i ran the next day to complete the first one, but then i kind of wanted to run longer so i did. came home a goddamn sweaty mess, but.
another one of those days was tonight, when i ran over an hour and also lost a bunch of time to various wildlife adventures. to wit: 1. giving a wide berth to a skunk, 2. playing chicken with a deer till i managed to convince her to run back into the woods and not onto the road, 3. leaping into the air a little higher than planned when a frog did its own leaping. despite these distractions i managed to run about 7.5 miles, sometimes even hilly ones in something like 70 minutes, so that's not terrible.
it's also humid as fuck; really, i have to start running with water even when it's not hot, because half an hour in i start hallucinating water fountains which turn out to be garbage cans (talk about disappointing).
the only snag lately is that after hurting one of my groin muscles the other weekend, i managed to fix it quickly, only to pull THE OTHER groin muscle at an exercise class -- c'mon, body, this is ridiculous. apart from this nonsense, i have been doing a bunch of crosstraining, which is wise; not much swimming but you see the rain? yes.
anyway, i think everything groinal is back in order; today's running felt if not beautiful then at least consistent. although my Garmin refused to get a satellite because the sky was made of clouds or something, i felt like i was keeping a consistent pace... although now as i write that i remember i was chasing two undergrad girls for three miles, so actually rather than averaging 9 minute miles i was probably flailing for a bit and cruising the rest of the time. oh, well.
overall, i'm feeling pretty good about my running, and i think it's a lot to do with running at night. summer night running is kind of my favourite, even when it's humid. tonight i ran without music or podcasts, and i missed neither. there's that floating, gliding, automatic feeling, and when the sky is quite black it somehow feels like you're swimming.
have i tried describing this before, the feeling like i'm at the ichthyosaurus exhibit? er, well. so: when i was growing up, the Royal Ontario Museum had this dinosaur exhibit, and my favourite bit was this weird little underwater corner, which illustrated some underwater big animal (maybe a whale or something) getting attacked by two or three of these underwater dinosaurs, called ichthyosauri. (were they really dinosaurs? for all i know they were actually fish. this is not the point. it's a running blog. let's move on.) ... the point is that to make it look underwater, they had these blue black lights aimed at the back wall, constantly moving in a gently undulating manner, to simulate the quality of light underwater. right? and it was SO COOL. ... i mean the ichthyosaurs were also cool, but what i loved best was that quality of light. like being bathed in a serene and liquid witching hour.
and THAT is the feeling i get now, as a grownup, when i run in the summer at night.
plus, much less chance of getting ichthyosaured.
i assume.
... run on, folks.
Monday, June 16, 2014
and then, three miles into the woods, goldilocks hurt her...
... yeah, so i went for a nice long run on saturday and pulled a muscle in my groin.
that is a terrible word. there must be a better word than that. groin??? it sounds like the noise a garbage disposal makes when full of gelatin. UGHHHH. groin groin groin. ow.
anyway, i was three miles into my run. from the car. meaning: i had to run three miles back to the car to get home. great.
for a few seconds i was really worried, but i stretched and massaged myself and got fairly comfortably back on the trail, just running, like, 10-11 min miles instead of 8:30-9 min miles. (sidenote: this stretching and especially the massaging were fairly NSFW activities given the location of my problem; i was doing all of this in an empty parking lot beside the trail, and in the midst of my action i saw had a sign warning of surveillance cameras? are people all going to this wooded lake park to shoot up and get teen pregnant or something? anyway, i hope somebody's got some prize footage of sweaty stinky me doing groin adjustments.)
so, that was annoying and dumb.
sunday, i swam. breast stroke, not doable, given the thing with the whip kick? yeah, no whipping. so, i did a lot of front crawl, which is more tiring so i guess good? and today i did strength and pilates stuff and nothing hurts at all, so tomorrow i will get on the treadmill (look at me! exercising caution! not getting stuck in the woods! like a boss!) and on we stumble.
that is a terrible word. there must be a better word than that. groin??? it sounds like the noise a garbage disposal makes when full of gelatin. UGHHHH. groin groin groin. ow.
anyway, i was three miles into my run. from the car. meaning: i had to run three miles back to the car to get home. great.
for a few seconds i was really worried, but i stretched and massaged myself and got fairly comfortably back on the trail, just running, like, 10-11 min miles instead of 8:30-9 min miles. (sidenote: this stretching and especially the massaging were fairly NSFW activities given the location of my problem; i was doing all of this in an empty parking lot beside the trail, and in the midst of my action i saw had a sign warning of surveillance cameras? are people all going to this wooded lake park to shoot up and get teen pregnant or something? anyway, i hope somebody's got some prize footage of sweaty stinky me doing groin adjustments.)
so, that was annoying and dumb.
sunday, i swam. breast stroke, not doable, given the thing with the whip kick? yeah, no whipping. so, i did a lot of front crawl, which is more tiring so i guess good? and today i did strength and pilates stuff and nothing hurts at all, so tomorrow i will get on the treadmill (look at me! exercising caution! not getting stuck in the woods! like a boss!) and on we stumble.
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
brain dump run interlude
somehow i have reached a state where my mental to-do list right now reads:
1. write running blog post
2. put on bathing suit, get into bathtub, wash dog, necessarily wash self and bathroom
3. have skype meeting with work people across continent
4. strength train
5. possibly make peach pear cobbler
6. back to actual work
so, lots is weird. but i do what the list says, and apparently my head thinks i need to write a blog post.
lessee. i have three topics:
1. the plan
2. the swimming
3. the yelling
The Plan
my plan is to run three days a week until another race appears -- oh, and i signed up for one! it's a 12k trail race near home (where home will be in late july) -- i ran it once before and found it harrrrrrrrrrrrrrd but great. memorable aspects of the race were the woman behind me telling me i was a pace-keeping machine (very sweet) and the fact that the trail is on a biathlon training course (the one with the skiing and the SHOOTING?) so it's important not to get lost. i also remember getting back to the fork where you either finish (if you're doing the short loop) or start again (if, as i am, you're doing the longer loop) and thinking TEMPTATION ... but i did it, and will do it again. the race is July 19th.
prep for this race means: lots of strength training for legs. hills and stairs. (note: there are none of these here? i may need to resort to treadmill action, or driving to a hill and being a crazy person.) and making sure i get, say, three 12-15k runs done in the next month. i do not remember this being an easy course. ... so, sticking with three days a week. it's going fine. i will bring my garmin back out this week to make sure i'm going far enough.
The Swimming
i have also gone back to swimming. last night i swam a kilometre in the luxurious outdoor campus pool at all-laps time, and it was lovely and quiet. i should do more, but really that means i just need to remember how to go faster; perhaps i can aim to work up to 2k, but the problem is the potential for BOREDOM. ... the lifeguards told me there's a 100% blind woman who comes in and does 100 laps a couple times a week, and always finds the edge of the pool dead on. clearly she's got the boredom problem licked?
The Yelling
right, the yelling. i don't think we've discussed the people who yell out of their car windows at people running before? there are various different things that can happen here. last week i got two:
yelling no. 1: late wednesday afternoon, in a suburban condo complex, two skinny guys who looked not quite old enough to drink first honked and then *slowed down* their old station wagon to make faces and yell shit about how bad i looked running. thanks, very helpful.
yelling no. 2: friday around dusk, near the edge of campus, a big car pumping with hip hop beats, full of at least four guys, maybe more, stopped at a red light where i was running across, and a guy in the backseat pointed out the window at me and yelled to the front seat "bro, that's what WE should be doin!!" and gave me a sort of solidarity fist pump.
eh, so. you win some, you lose some. the second car, i flashed a smile and fist-pumped back! the first car... uh, i also gave them a gesture. well, there were two of them and i have two hands so i gave them one each.
sometimes when i am running down the street, a young woman in a pick-up truck will pass me. they almost always wave and smile exuberantly; i don't know why that particular combination is so reliable, but i really like them. they look like they know what i'm doing, even if they don't do it themselves.
k, back to the to-do list. even more than a run that won't go for itself -- this dog is definitely not going to wash herself. so, onwards. will keep you posted.
1. write running blog post
2. put on bathing suit, get into bathtub, wash dog, necessarily wash self and bathroom
3. have skype meeting with work people across continent
4. strength train
5. possibly make peach pear cobbler
6. back to actual work
so, lots is weird. but i do what the list says, and apparently my head thinks i need to write a blog post.
lessee. i have three topics:
1. the plan
2. the swimming
3. the yelling
The Plan
my plan is to run three days a week until another race appears -- oh, and i signed up for one! it's a 12k trail race near home (where home will be in late july) -- i ran it once before and found it harrrrrrrrrrrrrrd but great. memorable aspects of the race were the woman behind me telling me i was a pace-keeping machine (very sweet) and the fact that the trail is on a biathlon training course (the one with the skiing and the SHOOTING?) so it's important not to get lost. i also remember getting back to the fork where you either finish (if you're doing the short loop) or start again (if, as i am, you're doing the longer loop) and thinking TEMPTATION ... but i did it, and will do it again. the race is July 19th.
prep for this race means: lots of strength training for legs. hills and stairs. (note: there are none of these here? i may need to resort to treadmill action, or driving to a hill and being a crazy person.) and making sure i get, say, three 12-15k runs done in the next month. i do not remember this being an easy course. ... so, sticking with three days a week. it's going fine. i will bring my garmin back out this week to make sure i'm going far enough.
The Swimming
i have also gone back to swimming. last night i swam a kilometre in the luxurious outdoor campus pool at all-laps time, and it was lovely and quiet. i should do more, but really that means i just need to remember how to go faster; perhaps i can aim to work up to 2k, but the problem is the potential for BOREDOM. ... the lifeguards told me there's a 100% blind woman who comes in and does 100 laps a couple times a week, and always finds the edge of the pool dead on. clearly she's got the boredom problem licked?
The Yelling
right, the yelling. i don't think we've discussed the people who yell out of their car windows at people running before? there are various different things that can happen here. last week i got two:
yelling no. 1: late wednesday afternoon, in a suburban condo complex, two skinny guys who looked not quite old enough to drink first honked and then *slowed down* their old station wagon to make faces and yell shit about how bad i looked running. thanks, very helpful.
yelling no. 2: friday around dusk, near the edge of campus, a big car pumping with hip hop beats, full of at least four guys, maybe more, stopped at a red light where i was running across, and a guy in the backseat pointed out the window at me and yelled to the front seat "bro, that's what WE should be doin!!" and gave me a sort of solidarity fist pump.
eh, so. you win some, you lose some. the second car, i flashed a smile and fist-pumped back! the first car... uh, i also gave them a gesture. well, there were two of them and i have two hands so i gave them one each.
sometimes when i am running down the street, a young woman in a pick-up truck will pass me. they almost always wave and smile exuberantly; i don't know why that particular combination is so reliable, but i really like them. they look like they know what i'm doing, even if they don't do it themselves.
k, back to the to-do list. even more than a run that won't go for itself -- this dog is definitely not going to wash herself. so, onwards. will keep you posted.
Sunday, June 1, 2014
a bit of optimism from DXA2
so, i ran another half marathon. the Dexter to Ann Arbor half.
it was not my best time. i finished in 2:03.55. that's pretty damn slow for me.
however, i am going to feel good about this. because:
1. it was pretty hot. the wind was lovely and when there was shady it was just fine. but often neither of these things were happening, and then it was pretty hot. (the high today was 29C, but i think it was at most 25C while we were running. still. we're not used to that yet! i've had really only two hot runs so far this year.) and i saw many people (maybe 5?) at the side of the road with firemen or paramedics pouring water over them and checking pulses and so on. safety first, kids.
2. i ran the first 3.5 miles with my maine friend, the one who's made of sterner stuff? apparently it turns out gallbladder surgery does, in fact, slow even her down a tad. so, we ran 10-ish minute miles for that time, and after that i did pull out ahead and finished with an overall 9:27/mile pace, but clearly that meant some pushing. my Garmin could tell me exactly how much, but who cares. i dont' need all those stats. i run on *feel*, man. plus it's in the other room.
3. i'm still not quite back to pre-illness energy levels, i think? it's ok. i need more time to build up my stamina again. ... and so i pushed for much of those remaining 9.5 miles, but i didn't really have a hammer to drop. that's what i had to give without feeling like shit, and i wasn't in the mood to feel like shit. what mood would that be, really? anyway, it wasn't today. that's quite ok.
4. two years ago, i ran this race 8 minutes faster. seriously! i checked. 1:55.53. it was slightly cooler that day, but not so much so. ... but why is this not cause for despair? because last time i was already in better shape, ok, yet also the last two miles WERE THE WORST -- because i had gone out faster than i could maintain for the whole race, and so felt like hell on sweaty toast at the end. to my amazement, i walked three times in those last two miles in 2012. i could SEE the finish, yet i walked!! so, while i finished in 1:56, i also positive splitted like a positive splat. and afterwards wanted to puke/whimper/roll up in a ball.
but today, when i approached the final hill, i was like: ok! almost almost there! can i push a little faster?! ... um, no i can't. but that's ok, because i'm not whimpering or walking! and afterwards i hung out with friends and walked around (still no puking/whimpering) and from how i'm walking right now, obviously i'll be sore tomorrow, but certainly nothing disastrous. i think i will go join the outdoor pool for June tomorrow and swim it off?
so. summer has three months ahead of us. time to get back on the training! onwards!
it was not my best time. i finished in 2:03.55. that's pretty damn slow for me.
however, i am going to feel good about this. because:
1. it was pretty hot. the wind was lovely and when there was shady it was just fine. but often neither of these things were happening, and then it was pretty hot. (the high today was 29C, but i think it was at most 25C while we were running. still. we're not used to that yet! i've had really only two hot runs so far this year.) and i saw many people (maybe 5?) at the side of the road with firemen or paramedics pouring water over them and checking pulses and so on. safety first, kids.
2. i ran the first 3.5 miles with my maine friend, the one who's made of sterner stuff? apparently it turns out gallbladder surgery does, in fact, slow even her down a tad. so, we ran 10-ish minute miles for that time, and after that i did pull out ahead and finished with an overall 9:27/mile pace, but clearly that meant some pushing. my Garmin could tell me exactly how much, but who cares. i dont' need all those stats. i run on *feel*, man. plus it's in the other room.
3. i'm still not quite back to pre-illness energy levels, i think? it's ok. i need more time to build up my stamina again. ... and so i pushed for much of those remaining 9.5 miles, but i didn't really have a hammer to drop. that's what i had to give without feeling like shit, and i wasn't in the mood to feel like shit. what mood would that be, really? anyway, it wasn't today. that's quite ok.
4. two years ago, i ran this race 8 minutes faster. seriously! i checked. 1:55.53. it was slightly cooler that day, but not so much so. ... but why is this not cause for despair? because last time i was already in better shape, ok, yet also the last two miles WERE THE WORST -- because i had gone out faster than i could maintain for the whole race, and so felt like hell on sweaty toast at the end. to my amazement, i walked three times in those last two miles in 2012. i could SEE the finish, yet i walked!! so, while i finished in 1:56, i also positive splitted like a positive splat. and afterwards wanted to puke/whimper/roll up in a ball.
but today, when i approached the final hill, i was like: ok! almost almost there! can i push a little faster?! ... um, no i can't. but that's ok, because i'm not whimpering or walking! and afterwards i hung out with friends and walked around (still no puking/whimpering) and from how i'm walking right now, obviously i'll be sore tomorrow, but certainly nothing disastrous. i think i will go join the outdoor pool for June tomorrow and swim it off?
so. summer has three months ahead of us. time to get back on the training! onwards!
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