last sunday, six days ago, i went to the gym and did a fairly typical workout. it involved slightly more being on the ball of my foot than many workouts i do, but nothing memorable. that night my right foot was kind of sore, where the toes meet the foot.
and it's been sore every since. FUCK.
... there's been a little bit of bruising. there has been much ice, much speculating, much fretting. however, i have also run twice and it has seemed ok? i don't know. and i think it is very gradually getting better.
tuesday i went on a running/drinking run? a hash, if that means anything to you. it was my first time, and i think it's fair to say it's not my thing, but many of people were great. i like my beer *after* the run, and i like to run continuously. if you are starting and stopping the whole time, surely you are just amplifying the traffic lights, stop signs, and other worst parts of every road run? ... anyway. there was some running, maybe 3 miles total (or more?) and the foot felt the same as the previous several days.
i didn't run again until today, despite life events we will ignore here that were really crying out for a damn run. but no, i did other things and waited for today, when i went for about a 6 mile run. it was humid. SO HUMID. it even rained at some point, which was great because it meant the water in the air was actually doing something with itself. ... i ran slow but fairly steady. i was worried there would be foot pain but... yeah, i don't know. there was some, but not a lot, and over the run it if anything got better rather than worse. i don't know, i don't know.
anyway. i keep moving. it is 3 ish week until Hood To Coast and i am getting worried about how that's going to play out... some doubles are necessary, and i need to know that my foot isn't going to break off. also we have to move between now and then, assuming we actually get to own our house... right, so. i will focus on the fact that i got a good endorphin kick today despite insane humidity and cranky body parts, and that will be enough to keep on keepin' on.
Saturday, August 8, 2015
Saturday, August 1, 2015
friday night flight
that feeling where you start running, and various things hurt to various degrees, and they need some attending to, but the overall fact is that you can run, and run slightly hard, and do it for an hour and not get tired, and want to do it for an hour more.
that feeling that you are BACK!
also, the realization that it's probably because it was evening and only 17C, as opposed to like 30C and blazing sun. and as for the things that hurt, they may need a little coddling this weekend. some weird foot thing. ice and pilates, maybe swimming.
but whatever. focus on the feeling BACK! ... hood to coast is in less than a month and i'm teaching cardio kickboxing and we're moving and everything's happening. but it's going to be good! run on.
that feeling that you are BACK!
also, the realization that it's probably because it was evening and only 17C, as opposed to like 30C and blazing sun. and as for the things that hurt, they may need a little coddling this weekend. some weird foot thing. ice and pilates, maybe swimming.
but whatever. focus on the feeling BACK! ... hood to coast is in less than a month and i'm teaching cardio kickboxing and we're moving and everything's happening. but it's going to be good! run on.
Sunday, July 26, 2015
race! (and other running, plus extra wildlife.)
a couple of reports.
on friday night i was in the worst mood possible. so i went for a run. well, first i went for a 15 minute walk and i was going to start running but then when my headphones died i thought 'well, shit sucks anyway so i might as well run'. and then i ran for like an hour and 15 or 20 minutes!
here is what it felt like: - slow - humid - easy - scary.
don't know why it was so easy; i just felt like i could go forever, but i thought i shouldn't (see why below).
but why was it scary? because wildlife was everywhere, being too wild! examples include a mom duck and her ducklings running TOWARDS a busy road, why, wrong, stop, so i suddenly got my sprint on and shooed them back away from the road into the bushes... and then right near the end of the run there was a sudden huge DEER in a dark front yard, that was startled into lunging AT me for one bounding and then turning on a deer-leg-shaped- dime and bolting away into the woods, while i screeched to both a literal and figurative halt (as in, i stopped and screamed.) ... still, a success.
then this morning, i ran my first 8k race in ages! it took me about 46 minutes, which is like 9:20 miles so pretty slow for me, but it was hot and there were HILLS that i did not anticipate (because when you tell me the race is on the river, i do not think it can go up and down? because, uh, river? but apparently bridges are long and not flat) and it started at 7:45am which is a horrific punishment of a time, so overall i feel alright. (i was also 4th in my age group. um, this is not a fast racing pack. :)
a good sign from this race is that during the few times i felt like i was genuinely overheating, i slowed down briefly and it was easy to recover; another maybe more important sign is that when it felt slightly uncomfortable my brain was willing to overrule my body, which i have felt out of practice at as of late. so: good work, brain. way to show up. as soon as i was done; like as soon as my breathing slowed actually, i felt like i hadn't raced hard enough; my legs don't really feel it at all. but at the time, i did NOT feel i was wimping out... so maybe my limiting factor is breathing and not leg strength or turnover right now? certainly i was stronger on the uphills than some other people running my speed. it might also be that i'm inefficient at running in heat? not that heat doesn't slow everything down, because obviously it does, but i mean: i would expect to be able to run 9-minute miles in that weather without a crisis, but my body felt that wasn't an option. hmm.
possibly there is track work in my future. possibly i just need to handle being slower. possibly i am being silly. definitely it was hot.
final good things: at the finish line was my friend (who ran her first post-baby 5k) and also said baby, and said baby's father, and then later there was a bulgogi omelette. so, a number of successes.
and now i might nap.
on friday night i was in the worst mood possible. so i went for a run. well, first i went for a 15 minute walk and i was going to start running but then when my headphones died i thought 'well, shit sucks anyway so i might as well run'. and then i ran for like an hour and 15 or 20 minutes!
here is what it felt like: - slow - humid - easy - scary.
don't know why it was so easy; i just felt like i could go forever, but i thought i shouldn't (see why below).
but why was it scary? because wildlife was everywhere, being too wild! examples include a mom duck and her ducklings running TOWARDS a busy road, why, wrong, stop, so i suddenly got my sprint on and shooed them back away from the road into the bushes... and then right near the end of the run there was a sudden huge DEER in a dark front yard, that was startled into lunging AT me for one bounding and then turning on a deer-leg-shaped- dime and bolting away into the woods, while i screeched to both a literal and figurative halt (as in, i stopped and screamed.) ... still, a success.
then this morning, i ran my first 8k race in ages! it took me about 46 minutes, which is like 9:20 miles so pretty slow for me, but it was hot and there were HILLS that i did not anticipate (because when you tell me the race is on the river, i do not think it can go up and down? because, uh, river? but apparently bridges are long and not flat) and it started at 7:45am which is a horrific punishment of a time, so overall i feel alright. (i was also 4th in my age group. um, this is not a fast racing pack. :)
a good sign from this race is that during the few times i felt like i was genuinely overheating, i slowed down briefly and it was easy to recover; another maybe more important sign is that when it felt slightly uncomfortable my brain was willing to overrule my body, which i have felt out of practice at as of late. so: good work, brain. way to show up. as soon as i was done; like as soon as my breathing slowed actually, i felt like i hadn't raced hard enough; my legs don't really feel it at all. but at the time, i did NOT feel i was wimping out... so maybe my limiting factor is breathing and not leg strength or turnover right now? certainly i was stronger on the uphills than some other people running my speed. it might also be that i'm inefficient at running in heat? not that heat doesn't slow everything down, because obviously it does, but i mean: i would expect to be able to run 9-minute miles in that weather without a crisis, but my body felt that wasn't an option. hmm.
possibly there is track work in my future. possibly i just need to handle being slower. possibly i am being silly. definitely it was hot.
final good things: at the finish line was my friend (who ran her first post-baby 5k) and also said baby, and said baby's father, and then later there was a bulgogi omelette. so, a number of successes.
and now i might nap.
Monday, July 13, 2015
stumbling, quite literally, onwards
just to say that since the Horrible Mosquito-Infested Bury Me (with) Wounded Knee Four Miles From Home Tragedy of last wednesday, which i am not the slightest bit dramatic about:
- i have been REALLY careful not to trip or run my knee into anything
- i have acquired some wicked bruises and gnarly scabs (you're lucky i never get pictures off my phone), but...
- i have run twice, and my legs still bend and propel me forward
... so i guess i'm fine.
one of those runs was yesterday, and it was 4 miles in 38 minutes which isn't awesome, BUT it was also after a dance class and it was STUPID hot and humid and really i'm amazed i didn't just lie down and sleep in the ditch. and why didn't i? because i had the genius idea (for real) to leave my wallet at the gym where the dance class happened, which i knew would only be open for another 45 minutes, so i had to make it back!
on the other hand, my attempts to crosstrain in the pool keep getting stupidly thwarted by stupid weather and stupid swim meets and other stupidities, so of course because i planned to swim tomorrow, there is a currently an epic thunderstorm flinging rain at my window and causing the dog to lose her shit.
well, maybe the weather gods will have shaken it off sufficiently by tomorrow afternoon.
or maybe i will swim just by *going outside*.
and/or maybe i will run.
onwards.
- i have been REALLY careful not to trip or run my knee into anything
- i have acquired some wicked bruises and gnarly scabs (you're lucky i never get pictures off my phone), but...
- i have run twice, and my legs still bend and propel me forward
... so i guess i'm fine.
one of those runs was yesterday, and it was 4 miles in 38 minutes which isn't awesome, BUT it was also after a dance class and it was STUPID hot and humid and really i'm amazed i didn't just lie down and sleep in the ditch. and why didn't i? because i had the genius idea (for real) to leave my wallet at the gym where the dance class happened, which i knew would only be open for another 45 minutes, so i had to make it back!
on the other hand, my attempts to crosstrain in the pool keep getting stupidly thwarted by stupid weather and stupid swim meets and other stupidities, so of course because i planned to swim tomorrow, there is a currently an epic thunderstorm flinging rain at my window and causing the dog to lose her shit.
well, maybe the weather gods will have shaken it off sufficiently by tomorrow afternoon.
or maybe i will swim just by *going outside*.
and/or maybe i will run.
onwards.
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Jurassic Hunger World Games Epic (or, tonight's run)
to get us up to speed: the last week of June, I went to Newfoundland, and running by the ocean was instead replaced by hiking the amazing-in-all-respects Skerwink Trail (seriously, it's more awesome than its name if you can believe it) and 20 minutes of yoga. it was a busy non-running five days, i tell you.
but! since getting back, all the running is happening. 3 days a week at least. couple days ago i ran 6 9-minute miles despite epic humidity, so that felt good. and then today i decided i would go for a long run: running slow and easy, aiming for like 80-90 minutes.
here are the things that went wrong:
- there's something up with my left hamstring. it's not a crisis, but it's some persistent cranky twingling thing. yes. twingling. and about 20 minutes in, it wasn't hurting, but i was noticing it. that remained constant for the rest of the run, but i think it kind of distracted me from time to time from other things i should have been paying attention to. for instance:
- at around mile 4, i dropped into this woodland bird wilderness reserve thing -- uh, it's a big wooded park. and what i SHOULD have done was just dip in, run a little bit of the perimeter, pop back out and go home. because, you know, i'd already run 4 miles -- why wasn't i starting to turn around? but i think i had it in my head that my hamstring would feel better running on springy dirt (which it did) so once i remembered i was close to it, i ran there without thinking about how far i'd already gone. so, ok -- now it was looking like a 9 mile run, at the longer-ish end of the plan, but i wasn't wearing my garmin and anyway, the forest is lovely... except of course:
- for the mosquitos. it's been raining here a lot. it's mosquito-ey in july at the best of times. upshot: ALL THE MOSQUITOS. so, even if i'm not running in a forest, i mother-effing *anoint* myself with serious DDT-stylez bug spray before i run -- like, i put it on the tops and lobes of my ears; i spray it under my shirt; i'm serious. thus, the forest wasn't a problem -- i mean, if i had stopped running, it would definitely be a problem, but i wasn't going to do that! .... except that that aforementioned rain has turned some of the lovely dirt trails...
- into a bog. and as i kept running in the woods enjoying the path, things got less dry and springy and more muddy and soggy and sloshy and pretty soon i'm tiptoe running through squidgy slop-mud, and using fallen tree trunks to bypass the worst of it, and given my slower speed traversing what is increasingly a malarial swamp, the mosquitos started winning and i was having to blink a lot and shake my ponytail constantly and breath with my nose closed (ok, not a thing, but i definitely swallowed two mosquitos during this Jurassic bit of the night)... and i'm just trying to get through the worst of it because at the end i'm sure there's an exit out and...
- ... do you think i fell in the mud? because i didn't! instead, i rounded a corner and discovered a lagoon of death! and to continue would have required a wetsuit and a snorkle mask. so i said out loud to the empty forest: WELL, FUCK. and i quickly turned around and retraced my slogslosh steps, because i knew the mosquitos were still there, and i just needed to get back through to the dry trail... which i did, phew, and i figured i had about a third of a mile to go before there was an exit back out onto campus, and i was taking my headphones out of my pocket (i don't listen to anything in the forest, so as to hear the birds and the wind and my own swearing) and looking to my left for a break in the fence, and maybe that hamstring was janking up my left leg stride, because next thing i know BAM i'm flying....
- because i tripped on a tree root, fell flying forward and completely laid out. i bounced off both knees and skidded to a stop on my palms. BOOM.
- at first i started talking to myself like you do a toddler who has fallen and isn't sure whether they've died or not: "ok, you're fine, you're fine, nothing broken, you're ok" because i could tell immediately that i *was* fine, nothing was even twisted, i was just a bit of a mess. this time i said out loud: ok, that wasn't very smart -- but i got up, dusted off my headphones, saw that my knees were covered in dirt and one of them probably had some blood seeping through, but you know, i could walk, nothing hurt in the wincing or stabbing way, just some little throbs and aches. and then it occurred to me that the mosquitos would find me again if i didn't run, so i did. out of the woodlot and onto the wide side walks of campus.
- then i took stock of things. and realized: 1) i was at least 4 miles from home, and had already been running an hour. 2) i was wearing these neon coral running pants (bought from a very expensive store on extreme online sale, presumably because most people choose not to wear lycra highlighters on their legs, but they are good for dusk-running visibility and who has shame anymore anyway?), and so now these coral highlighters were festooned with large streaks of dark shit-coloured mud, and two knee patches of dirt mixed with obvious growing blood stains 3) my hands were bleeding in various small places too 4) ... and then the mosquitos noticed that blood. and suddenly i was *wreathed* in mosquitos, and i felt like a beekeeper who had walked over to the hive, yanked out the honey thing and then noticed he'd forgotten his special hat. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH...
- so, clearly i was running home. i swatted viciously and swore some more and took off, slightly uncomfortable at the knees but otherwise, ugh, fine. i started to psych myself up for a slower run home, hoping i could get into a smooth, calm rhythm, listen to my music, and not think about my various discomforts. i was starting to get kind of thirsty and hungry too, and the sweat was stinging my eyes, but whatever. it wasn't like i was likely to run into a lot of humans...
- and then at the next intersection -- because as a friend of mine recently put it, "there is a God and He Hates Us" -- a couple quick young teenagers ran past me. and as i happened to look behind me i saw, oh, 200 teenagers were running towards, around and past me... some summer camp, perhaps? they were too young to be undergrads, and none of them were the slightest bit sweaty or disheveled (how? where were they coming from? there's no gym in that direction?) and all of them were well scrubbed and none of them had blood-peed their sweaty highlighter knees. but there was nothing to do but keep jogging along, and they just kept *swarming* around me, like speedy little highschool LOCUSTS...
- and eventually they scampered off my path (ending the Hunger Games part of my night) and i was allowed to run semi-pathetically home. a couple times i stopped to assess knee swelling (verdict: minimal), but each time the slightly alarmed looks of other pedestrians, coupled with the mosquitos yelling 'we've got a bleeder!' to all of their friends, got me running again.
a painful shower, much hydrogen peroxide and one beer later, i have determined that i ran about 10 miles in one hour 45 mins, which is pretty slow but considering the bullshit i'm not going to complain about pace. i AM however going to foam roll my left hamstring a lot, probably apply some ice to my knees before bed, and maybe retire those pants.
goddammit.
but! since getting back, all the running is happening. 3 days a week at least. couple days ago i ran 6 9-minute miles despite epic humidity, so that felt good. and then today i decided i would go for a long run: running slow and easy, aiming for like 80-90 minutes.
here are the things that went wrong:
- there's something up with my left hamstring. it's not a crisis, but it's some persistent cranky twingling thing. yes. twingling. and about 20 minutes in, it wasn't hurting, but i was noticing it. that remained constant for the rest of the run, but i think it kind of distracted me from time to time from other things i should have been paying attention to. for instance:
- at around mile 4, i dropped into this woodland bird wilderness reserve thing -- uh, it's a big wooded park. and what i SHOULD have done was just dip in, run a little bit of the perimeter, pop back out and go home. because, you know, i'd already run 4 miles -- why wasn't i starting to turn around? but i think i had it in my head that my hamstring would feel better running on springy dirt (which it did) so once i remembered i was close to it, i ran there without thinking about how far i'd already gone. so, ok -- now it was looking like a 9 mile run, at the longer-ish end of the plan, but i wasn't wearing my garmin and anyway, the forest is lovely... except of course:
- for the mosquitos. it's been raining here a lot. it's mosquito-ey in july at the best of times. upshot: ALL THE MOSQUITOS. so, even if i'm not running in a forest, i mother-effing *anoint* myself with serious DDT-stylez bug spray before i run -- like, i put it on the tops and lobes of my ears; i spray it under my shirt; i'm serious. thus, the forest wasn't a problem -- i mean, if i had stopped running, it would definitely be a problem, but i wasn't going to do that! .... except that that aforementioned rain has turned some of the lovely dirt trails...
- into a bog. and as i kept running in the woods enjoying the path, things got less dry and springy and more muddy and soggy and sloshy and pretty soon i'm tiptoe running through squidgy slop-mud, and using fallen tree trunks to bypass the worst of it, and given my slower speed traversing what is increasingly a malarial swamp, the mosquitos started winning and i was having to blink a lot and shake my ponytail constantly and breath with my nose closed (ok, not a thing, but i definitely swallowed two mosquitos during this Jurassic bit of the night)... and i'm just trying to get through the worst of it because at the end i'm sure there's an exit out and...
- ... do you think i fell in the mud? because i didn't! instead, i rounded a corner and discovered a lagoon of death! and to continue would have required a wetsuit and a snorkle mask. so i said out loud to the empty forest: WELL, FUCK. and i quickly turned around and retraced my slogslosh steps, because i knew the mosquitos were still there, and i just needed to get back through to the dry trail... which i did, phew, and i figured i had about a third of a mile to go before there was an exit back out onto campus, and i was taking my headphones out of my pocket (i don't listen to anything in the forest, so as to hear the birds and the wind and my own swearing) and looking to my left for a break in the fence, and maybe that hamstring was janking up my left leg stride, because next thing i know BAM i'm flying....
- because i tripped on a tree root, fell flying forward and completely laid out. i bounced off both knees and skidded to a stop on my palms. BOOM.
- at first i started talking to myself like you do a toddler who has fallen and isn't sure whether they've died or not: "ok, you're fine, you're fine, nothing broken, you're ok" because i could tell immediately that i *was* fine, nothing was even twisted, i was just a bit of a mess. this time i said out loud: ok, that wasn't very smart -- but i got up, dusted off my headphones, saw that my knees were covered in dirt and one of them probably had some blood seeping through, but you know, i could walk, nothing hurt in the wincing or stabbing way, just some little throbs and aches. and then it occurred to me that the mosquitos would find me again if i didn't run, so i did. out of the woodlot and onto the wide side walks of campus.
- then i took stock of things. and realized: 1) i was at least 4 miles from home, and had already been running an hour. 2) i was wearing these neon coral running pants (bought from a very expensive store on extreme online sale, presumably because most people choose not to wear lycra highlighters on their legs, but they are good for dusk-running visibility and who has shame anymore anyway?), and so now these coral highlighters were festooned with large streaks of dark shit-coloured mud, and two knee patches of dirt mixed with obvious growing blood stains 3) my hands were bleeding in various small places too 4) ... and then the mosquitos noticed that blood. and suddenly i was *wreathed* in mosquitos, and i felt like a beekeeper who had walked over to the hive, yanked out the honey thing and then noticed he'd forgotten his special hat. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH...
- so, clearly i was running home. i swatted viciously and swore some more and took off, slightly uncomfortable at the knees but otherwise, ugh, fine. i started to psych myself up for a slower run home, hoping i could get into a smooth, calm rhythm, listen to my music, and not think about my various discomforts. i was starting to get kind of thirsty and hungry too, and the sweat was stinging my eyes, but whatever. it wasn't like i was likely to run into a lot of humans...
- and then at the next intersection -- because as a friend of mine recently put it, "there is a God and He Hates Us" -- a couple quick young teenagers ran past me. and as i happened to look behind me i saw, oh, 200 teenagers were running towards, around and past me... some summer camp, perhaps? they were too young to be undergrads, and none of them were the slightest bit sweaty or disheveled (how? where were they coming from? there's no gym in that direction?) and all of them were well scrubbed and none of them had blood-peed their sweaty highlighter knees. but there was nothing to do but keep jogging along, and they just kept *swarming* around me, like speedy little highschool LOCUSTS...
- and eventually they scampered off my path (ending the Hunger Games part of my night) and i was allowed to run semi-pathetically home. a couple times i stopped to assess knee swelling (verdict: minimal), but each time the slightly alarmed looks of other pedestrians, coupled with the mosquitos yelling 'we've got a bleeder!' to all of their friends, got me running again.
a painful shower, much hydrogen peroxide and one beer later, i have determined that i ran about 10 miles in one hour 45 mins, which is pretty slow but considering the bullshit i'm not going to complain about pace. i AM however going to foam roll my left hamstring a lot, probably apply some ice to my knees before bed, and maybe retire those pants.
goddammit.
Saturday, June 20, 2015
and some numbers!
that is to say: i ran 6.5 miles today in an hour. that's not so slow! and it was stupid humid! and i was brave and wore my garmin, so i know that the first two miles were really easy and warm-uppy pace (9:45/mile) and then i ran four between 9:00 and 9:20/miles.
this means that i ran 4 times in the last 7 days, and i'm feeling good.
the plan for this coming week (during which i am traveling 6 days) is to run three times, with at least one run longer than an hour. also i will be in st john's newfoundland, so i plan to run looking at the ocean. good. there might even be pictures!... ok, let's not kid ourselves. i can never be bothered to get pictures off my iphone. but: i will maybe describe stuff to you.
this means that i ran 4 times in the last 7 days, and i'm feeling good.
the plan for this coming week (during which i am traveling 6 days) is to run three times, with at least one run longer than an hour. also i will be in st john's newfoundland, so i plan to run looking at the ocean. good. there might even be pictures!... ok, let's not kid ourselves. i can never be bothered to get pictures off my iphone. but: i will maybe describe stuff to you.
stupidity, tree roots, and peanut butter stealth
yesterday was a complete jackass of a day, in which among other things i got my period literally as i walked out the door to go swimming (so, not doing that apparently) and then real estate frustrations that i won't get into here prevented me from driving to the hour-away evening race i wanted to attend.
so, instead drove to this lake and ran in the woods for 30 minutes. it was great in that the woods were lovely and i wasn't too hot. it was terrible in that i ran 5k and it took me 30 minutes. it wasn't actually terrible in that those woods have a lot of hills and turns and my legs mysteriously already hurt and that's probably a respectable pace. it was however actually terrible when at one point i thought i had more energy and i sped up and caught my foot on a tree root and went flying and landed hard on my hands and knees and i have scrapes! ... ok, only terrible for 15 seconds. but also i only had time for 30 minutes and that wasn't enough.
so, today i am going to go for a longer run, at least an hour but i hope for more. to this end, i did not have oatmeal as my first meal of the day as marathon training eventually taught me that oatmeal + long run before evening = gastrodisastro. which means that i had toast and a thing i like putting on toast in peanut butter.
... and this caused the following problem: in our household, 95% of the peanut butter is consumed by the dog. so applying peanut butter to human food requires stealth and planning -- otherwise the dog decides either that she is being prevented from having dessert, despite the incongruous hour, or that she is about to be locked up while the humans are away for some hours, left cruelly behind with only peanut butter to console her, despite the lack of any other signs to that effect.
anyway, i quickly hid the PB under banana, and gave the dog a pill she wasn't due for an hour, and we were both content enough. now it is time to brace myself and pull up my big girl socks (quite literally) and charge my garmin and then run. wish me luck.
so, instead drove to this lake and ran in the woods for 30 minutes. it was great in that the woods were lovely and i wasn't too hot. it was terrible in that i ran 5k and it took me 30 minutes. it wasn't actually terrible in that those woods have a lot of hills and turns and my legs mysteriously already hurt and that's probably a respectable pace. it was however actually terrible when at one point i thought i had more energy and i sped up and caught my foot on a tree root and went flying and landed hard on my hands and knees and i have scrapes! ... ok, only terrible for 15 seconds. but also i only had time for 30 minutes and that wasn't enough.
so, today i am going to go for a longer run, at least an hour but i hope for more. to this end, i did not have oatmeal as my first meal of the day as marathon training eventually taught me that oatmeal + long run before evening = gastrodisastro. which means that i had toast and a thing i like putting on toast in peanut butter.
... and this caused the following problem: in our household, 95% of the peanut butter is consumed by the dog. so applying peanut butter to human food requires stealth and planning -- otherwise the dog decides either that she is being prevented from having dessert, despite the incongruous hour, or that she is about to be locked up while the humans are away for some hours, left cruelly behind with only peanut butter to console her, despite the lack of any other signs to that effect.
anyway, i quickly hid the PB under banana, and gave the dog a pill she wasn't due for an hour, and we were both content enough. now it is time to brace myself and pull up my big girl socks (quite literally) and charge my garmin and then run. wish me luck.
Monday, June 15, 2015
acclimatizing
just to say: i ran in the humid humidity yesterday. it was humid. it was mostly very flat, on campus and environs. it was humid. part of the time it was raining, occasionally it was pouring, mostly it was just like pawing through a wall of moisture. it was not easy. in fact, it was hard. have i mentioned that it was humid? i literally looked at mile 1 like i had jumped in a pond. IT WAS HUMID.
but i ran 4.3 miles in like 38 minutes. i pushed myself more than a little, and i made myself talk out loud to keep breathing, and i carried a water bottle full of ice. zero soreness today. this is good! and humid.
as i ran i told myself i would run a little further next time it's so humid, and the acclimatization process will continue.
also: going to run an 8k this friday evening. there's a national strawberry festival in this little town an hour away? anyway, i'm going to go run and then strawberries. and evening is my best running time, soo i am pumped.
and i hope it is LESS FUCKING HUMID.
but i ran 4.3 miles in like 38 minutes. i pushed myself more than a little, and i made myself talk out loud to keep breathing, and i carried a water bottle full of ice. zero soreness today. this is good! and humid.
as i ran i told myself i would run a little further next time it's so humid, and the acclimatization process will continue.
also: going to run an 8k this friday evening. there's a national strawberry festival in this little town an hour away? anyway, i'm going to go run and then strawberries. and evening is my best running time, soo i am pumped.
and i hope it is LESS FUCKING HUMID.
Friday, June 12, 2015
5 month running recap (not as long as that sounds)
and, it's june. hi there.
the tl;dr version of this post is: i ran. then i got sick. then i ran a half and was slow but didn't die much at all. then it was now and i'm cross-training a lot and running HTC at the end of august.
maybe you want slightly more? well, slightly more is gonna happen.
continuing in the vein of last december, i ran three days a week and logged every run for all of january, february, march and half of april. those logs show that i was consistent, that i wasn't fast, that i was dodging ice a lot of the time, that i could run a 5k pretty well on the treadmill, and that runs longer than an hour were really rare. foreshadowing: half marathons take more than an hour.
the second half of april and first half of may threw a month long wrench into my running works (wait, ow, that sounds terrible)... in the form of a weird-ass never-gonna-kill-me ear/throatache flu, which left me with way less energy than normal. it was pretty low-level brutal, actually, and it meant i ran slow, and not much, and sometimes just walked. actually that last part was fairly demoralizing: on two separate occasions during that time, i went for a walk in the river valley that was longer than a half marathon! ... but i just couldn't make myself run, and i couldn't tell if it was that it would have been physically really unpleasant or (more scary) if i just couldn't will myself to care enough. ugh. unsettling.
by mid-may i was moving again, but by now i had only two weeks to reboot before... running a half-marathon in Toronto! which i had agreed to run with hardly-ever-seen friends, and two of us were coming from different countries/time zones, and it was a whole get-together production and i wasn't going to just NOT do it even though my brain was quietly screaming um, why don't you not do it? ... i would like to say that i have been running long enough that i knew deep down i *did* have the base stamina for it, even if the backhalf was going to suck, but then again i thought that a year before when i ran that april half marathon and then it turned out the race was so hard because i was coming down with, er, mono.
SO. no illusions -- i thought i could probably do it, but maybe it would all end horrifically. oh, and i bought new shoes a week before because all my good racing shoes got too old at the same moment? yeah, it was a great lead-up.
anyway: the race was way hotter than it had been, and so i ran even slower than i might have, and i actually walked for enough seconds to send a text to my friends at the finish TWICE! ... with 2km and 1km to go... so this tells you much my head was in the game by then. however, i made it that far, and i didn't completely blow it, and my time was 2:05 exactly. given that the course was quite flat, that's pretty close to PW for me, but it wasn't a complete rout. observing how i felt during the race, and that the day after i was walking 90% normally, i think it's fair to conclude that my winter base training from before the death illness had equipped me to run a 15k race just fine, and those last 6k were really just run on willpower -- some of which i had, and some of which i didn't.
not my finest hour, but far from my ...least fine. what the hell is the opposite of finest hour. my thickest hour? moving on.
in the couple weeks since then, i've been running maybe twice a week, but also getting back into some serious cross-training. i have been struggling on and off with a cranky ankle that i can't really understand -- it seems to be exacerbated by lateral movements of various sorts, so actually running at least on the road is not bad, but there's been a fair bit of dicking around regarding whether i can run, should run, might run, etc... so. in the meantime, swimming and gymming and so on.
my last two runs were ankle-tentative but successes. both were about 4 miles; the first one very cautious and on the treadmill, the second one starting out cautious and then increasingly less cautious as the rain became a downpour complete with thunder, lightning and wrath of weathergod... but the ankle is still fine. i should ice it before i go to bed, though, right? and in the morning i hope to run for a full hour, and i hope it will be good.
right now my next race is Hood to Coast at the end of August. that seems... rather sooner than you'd think? but i'm pretty sure as long as i keep this ankle in line that i'll be fine. i *think* i could probably run it tomorrow and survive. ... anyway, let's not try that.
one other thing? 2015 has also been the year where i start doing all the yoga. at least: all the yoga videos. tons of them! in particular all the videos on a particular youtube channel, and ... yeah, you'd think they would have done more for me? i don't know; in the moment i feel like they are good stretches and strengtheners, and it's not like i don't sweat, but i don't really see my flexibility or relevant strength improving. so, hmm, not clear.
... aaaand, we're up to speed.
i guess i shouldn't say i want to start runblogging again? but the thing is, i want to start runblogging again. so, well, that might happen. here, the new yogi in me (#yeahnonotreally) will 'set an intention' on this point: the plan for the next week will be to run three times, and wear my garmin at least one time to see how i'm doing wrt pace and consistency. let's see if i can manage that and report back.
the tl;dr version of this post is: i ran. then i got sick. then i ran a half and was slow but didn't die much at all. then it was now and i'm cross-training a lot and running HTC at the end of august.
maybe you want slightly more? well, slightly more is gonna happen.
continuing in the vein of last december, i ran three days a week and logged every run for all of january, february, march and half of april. those logs show that i was consistent, that i wasn't fast, that i was dodging ice a lot of the time, that i could run a 5k pretty well on the treadmill, and that runs longer than an hour were really rare. foreshadowing: half marathons take more than an hour.
the second half of april and first half of may threw a month long wrench into my running works (wait, ow, that sounds terrible)... in the form of a weird-ass never-gonna-kill-me ear/throatache flu, which left me with way less energy than normal. it was pretty low-level brutal, actually, and it meant i ran slow, and not much, and sometimes just walked. actually that last part was fairly demoralizing: on two separate occasions during that time, i went for a walk in the river valley that was longer than a half marathon! ... but i just couldn't make myself run, and i couldn't tell if it was that it would have been physically really unpleasant or (more scary) if i just couldn't will myself to care enough. ugh. unsettling.
by mid-may i was moving again, but by now i had only two weeks to reboot before... running a half-marathon in Toronto! which i had agreed to run with hardly-ever-seen friends, and two of us were coming from different countries/time zones, and it was a whole get-together production and i wasn't going to just NOT do it even though my brain was quietly screaming um, why don't you not do it? ... i would like to say that i have been running long enough that i knew deep down i *did* have the base stamina for it, even if the backhalf was going to suck, but then again i thought that a year before when i ran that april half marathon and then it turned out the race was so hard because i was coming down with, er, mono.
SO. no illusions -- i thought i could probably do it, but maybe it would all end horrifically. oh, and i bought new shoes a week before because all my good racing shoes got too old at the same moment? yeah, it was a great lead-up.
anyway: the race was way hotter than it had been, and so i ran even slower than i might have, and i actually walked for enough seconds to send a text to my friends at the finish TWICE! ... with 2km and 1km to go... so this tells you much my head was in the game by then. however, i made it that far, and i didn't completely blow it, and my time was 2:05 exactly. given that the course was quite flat, that's pretty close to PW for me, but it wasn't a complete rout. observing how i felt during the race, and that the day after i was walking 90% normally, i think it's fair to conclude that my winter base training from before the death illness had equipped me to run a 15k race just fine, and those last 6k were really just run on willpower -- some of which i had, and some of which i didn't.
not my finest hour, but far from my ...least fine. what the hell is the opposite of finest hour. my thickest hour? moving on.
in the couple weeks since then, i've been running maybe twice a week, but also getting back into some serious cross-training. i have been struggling on and off with a cranky ankle that i can't really understand -- it seems to be exacerbated by lateral movements of various sorts, so actually running at least on the road is not bad, but there's been a fair bit of dicking around regarding whether i can run, should run, might run, etc... so. in the meantime, swimming and gymming and so on.
my last two runs were ankle-tentative but successes. both were about 4 miles; the first one very cautious and on the treadmill, the second one starting out cautious and then increasingly less cautious as the rain became a downpour complete with thunder, lightning and wrath of weathergod... but the ankle is still fine. i should ice it before i go to bed, though, right? and in the morning i hope to run for a full hour, and i hope it will be good.
right now my next race is Hood to Coast at the end of August. that seems... rather sooner than you'd think? but i'm pretty sure as long as i keep this ankle in line that i'll be fine. i *think* i could probably run it tomorrow and survive. ... anyway, let's not try that.
one other thing? 2015 has also been the year where i start doing all the yoga. at least: all the yoga videos. tons of them! in particular all the videos on a particular youtube channel, and ... yeah, you'd think they would have done more for me? i don't know; in the moment i feel like they are good stretches and strengtheners, and it's not like i don't sweat, but i don't really see my flexibility or relevant strength improving. so, hmm, not clear.
... aaaand, we're up to speed.
i guess i shouldn't say i want to start runblogging again? but the thing is, i want to start runblogging again. so, well, that might happen. here, the new yogi in me (#yeahnonotreally) will 'set an intention' on this point: the plan for the next week will be to run three times, and wear my garmin at least one time to see how i'm doing wrt pace and consistency. let's see if i can manage that and report back.
Thursday, January 1, 2015
thoughts after the first run of the year
morning, 2015.
since we last spoke, i've been running. i got wimpy about cold when it got cold, but i've still been running. i ran a 2 hour half marathon in october; that's not that impressive but it was a race/party weekend with friends, and these friends don't party with just gatorade, so i consider that an achievement.
i also agreed to run Hood to Coast 2015 with old Ragnar relay friends. do you know about HTC? it's a real thing, promise. ask the internet if you are curious. there is apparently a movie, even? anyway, we lotteried in, so that's happening at the end of august... and with another member of that ragtag team, i said we should start excel spreadsheet training! ... we haven't quite gotten the logistics in place, but this does mean that i have been tracking all my runs since dec 18.
what that tracking tells me is that:
- i have been running frequently -- 8 times in the last 2 weeks (and it warmed up a bunch, so it's all been outside)
- i have been running between 30 minutes to an hour, but usually about 40-45 minutes at a time
- i have been running slow. ... i haven't been wearing my garmin, but i know what i'm doing, and it's called: running slow.
this morning, january 1, i woke up, i drank coffee, i had toast and PB and banana, i pet the dog, i dithered on facebook, and i went for a run. it was not warm or sunny, but i had layers and i was fine. i ran for 50-ish minutes, and it was totally fine. i'm pretty sure i negative splat; my music died halfway through (sidenote: phone battery, you are the jerkiest), and after that i just told my brain to zone out and i could feel i was running faster. ... but in the first 20 minutes, i somehow *lost faith* in my ability to run. i don't know what was up, really -- but, my brain kept thinking i couldn't do it, and i had to stop to readjust something, or take a picture, just make some excuse for not running for 10 seconds and then start again.
... why? i wasn't out of breath. (nor the slightest hungover, since you were wondering.) the backs of my legs are a little sore from some exuberant cross training yesterday, but i've run in plenty worse condition. i'm heavier than i want to be right now, but i'm hardly unable to run. ... i don't know what my brain was thinking, cuz it was clearly my brain and not my body that lost the plot, but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
... so. some re-focusing is in order.
this month -- january -- the plan is to go back to tracking distance, not just time. and to start adding runs of at least an hour or longer.
next month, the plan will be to arrange a race schedule for the year. this is a bit complicated because (long story) i'm not sure where i will be living when... but at least i can plan something in e.g. april.
i should probably also go back to run blogging, because i think that's a way to remind my brain that i'm actually a Runner, like not just i am able to run, but i Actually Run Frequently and Long Distances, with Capitalization N' Shit. so... yes. that's also the plan for this month.
forward motion, right? right. forward.
since we last spoke, i've been running. i got wimpy about cold when it got cold, but i've still been running. i ran a 2 hour half marathon in october; that's not that impressive but it was a race/party weekend with friends, and these friends don't party with just gatorade, so i consider that an achievement.
i also agreed to run Hood to Coast 2015 with old Ragnar relay friends. do you know about HTC? it's a real thing, promise. ask the internet if you are curious. there is apparently a movie, even? anyway, we lotteried in, so that's happening at the end of august... and with another member of that ragtag team, i said we should start excel spreadsheet training! ... we haven't quite gotten the logistics in place, but this does mean that i have been tracking all my runs since dec 18.
what that tracking tells me is that:
- i have been running frequently -- 8 times in the last 2 weeks (and it warmed up a bunch, so it's all been outside)
- i have been running between 30 minutes to an hour, but usually about 40-45 minutes at a time
- i have been running slow. ... i haven't been wearing my garmin, but i know what i'm doing, and it's called: running slow.
this morning, january 1, i woke up, i drank coffee, i had toast and PB and banana, i pet the dog, i dithered on facebook, and i went for a run. it was not warm or sunny, but i had layers and i was fine. i ran for 50-ish minutes, and it was totally fine. i'm pretty sure i negative splat; my music died halfway through (sidenote: phone battery, you are the jerkiest), and after that i just told my brain to zone out and i could feel i was running faster. ... but in the first 20 minutes, i somehow *lost faith* in my ability to run. i don't know what was up, really -- but, my brain kept thinking i couldn't do it, and i had to stop to readjust something, or take a picture, just make some excuse for not running for 10 seconds and then start again.
... why? i wasn't out of breath. (nor the slightest hungover, since you were wondering.) the backs of my legs are a little sore from some exuberant cross training yesterday, but i've run in plenty worse condition. i'm heavier than i want to be right now, but i'm hardly unable to run. ... i don't know what my brain was thinking, cuz it was clearly my brain and not my body that lost the plot, but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
... so. some re-focusing is in order.
this month -- january -- the plan is to go back to tracking distance, not just time. and to start adding runs of at least an hour or longer.
next month, the plan will be to arrange a race schedule for the year. this is a bit complicated because (long story) i'm not sure where i will be living when... but at least i can plan something in e.g. april.
i should probably also go back to run blogging, because i think that's a way to remind my brain that i'm actually a Runner, like not just i am able to run, but i Actually Run Frequently and Long Distances, with Capitalization N' Shit. so... yes. that's also the plan for this month.
forward motion, right? right. forward.
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