Category: exercise

I passed a friend on my way to the gym today. He asked me, mock-seriously, “You aren’t running outside?”

He got a flat “No.” in reply and we both laughed.

It was over 90 degrees today. Bleah.

But the best part is, I ran like a rock star!

I had planned 4 miles, and, truly, with a 6.5 mile run planned for tomorrow (it’s supposed to be cooler but not much), I probably shouldn’t have pushed myself. But I really wanted to see what I could do. My last run in the gym for distance, on Monday, I did pretty well, but not spectacular. I felt I slowed down too much at the end, I got off the treadmill thinking “I could have gone faster.”

Could I have? The question nagged at me. Tuesday night was my speedwork, and I felt a little faster, and since I’ve been doing the regular speedwork and focussing on keeping my breathing regular and in rhythm with my running, I feel just that much better. And with those thoughts in my head, I decided to try to push myself tonight.

Modeling my strategy on Monday’s performance, I aimed for ~9:40 pace for the first two miles, then figured a 9:30 pace for a mile would leave me enough energy for a 9:20 pace for the last mile. That would average just over a 9:32 pace, which would be pretty good for that distance for me.

But as I approached the half-way mark, I felt pretty good, and ran the speed up to about an 8:30 pace for a brief sprint, bringing it down to 9:20 or so. I thought I’d run out of breath and have to slow down further, but I just stared straight ahead, focused on my breathing, and concentrated on my overall form, and zoned out to the music and my mental counting. And before I knew it, I was approaching the last mile.

So, again, I tried a brief burst of speed to push past the 3 mile mark, running at what felt like 85% of my flat-out running speed for a full minute, before reducing the treadmill’s speed back to a 9:20 pace. I was breathing hard, but it felt good, and again I regulated my breathing, picturing the oxygen spreading to all the limbs in my body, feeling my diaphragm filling my lungs with air… listening to the music… and as I approached the 3.5 mile mark, I realized that I could finish at this pace.

The last tenth of a mile was again passed in a hard run, not quite a sprint but a good hard effort. The clock said 37:51 as the odometer read 4.0 miles. I slowed the treadmill to a walk to cool down, and mentally calculated my average pace at 9:27.something – that was the closest I could do in my head as tired as I was.

But, y’know… I think I could have kept going if I hadn’t done that sprint… the voice in the back of my head, normally so negative and full of discouragement, was, for once, urging me on to try harder, to push myself more. I did great, and I could do even greater.

My theory has been that I should push myself when I’m on the treadmill, considering the advantages it gives me; lots of cushioning, forces me to keep a regular pace, air-conditioned comfort, no traffic, no red lights, no hills, no sunlight in my eyes, no pollen attacks (I have allergies). So my pace on a treadmill is going to be better than my pace on the street. I still don’t have much idea how much better, though. It’s all guess work at this point. Of course, a year ago, I had no idea how to pace myself for any distance at all. Time and effort has given me some experience in those things, and I’m only going to get better at gauging all of the variables.

I do think the speedwork has really been helping, and so has increasing the distance. Tomorrow I will see what I can do on a 6.5 mile loop, in the heat, on asphalt and on mainly city streets. If I can do a 9:40 overall pace, that would be pretty good, I think, under those conditions.

I’m looking forward to it…

Oh, almost forgot, running update:

Ran last night, in the gym. 3.5 miles on the treadmill. I pushed for as long as I could, and after the first 3 miles I made a note of the time: 28:41, or about a 9:34 pace. I had to slow down for a bit after that, but still finished the full 3.5 miles in 33:50, or about a 9:40 pace overall.

Also had a weird experience of seeing someone I thought I knew, someone who I would have thought had an, um, unique body shape (incredibly, incredibly thin), but it turned out that it wasn’t my friend, it was a girl who looked enough like her to be her equally-emaciated sister. Strange.

Next week’s running schedule:

• Monday: 3.5 miles training (no timing)
• Tuesday: Elliptical trainer intervals 5 miles total.
• Wednesday: Rest day.
• Thursday: 4 miles (Optional)
• Friday: 6.5 miles tempo
• Saturday: Hills – 1 mile warmup/cooldown + 8x.25-mile uphill, jog downhill
• Sunday: Rest day.

Running update:

I know, I know, it seems like all I post about lately is running. What can I say?

Tonight was hill night. Ow. Ow, ow. Ow ow ow ow ow owow ow. The drill: 1 mile warmup and cooldown, and in-between, 8 x up a .3-mile section of hill, fairly steep, and walk or jog down. As much rest as I need between each run up, because I aim to improve my time by 5-10 seconds each time after the first. It’s a pretty tough drill, actually. Here are my times, and equivalent per-mile paces:

1. 02:59.5 / 09:57.3
2. 02:54.2 / 09:40.6
3. 02:46.3 / 09:14.3
4. 02:42.9 / 09:03.0
5. 02:34.4 / 08:34.6
6. 02:35.7 / 08:39.0
7. 02:47.5 / 09:18.3
8. 02:42.8 / 09:02.7

I pushed myself hard, especially considering last night I ran at my 5K race pace or better. And it’s no surprise that by my 7th time up the hill, I just stopped. My legs just wouldn’t keep going. It’s a testament to my drive that, even having to stop in the middle of the hill, I still made it the rest of the way up faster than my first two intervals. And I managed to improve my time up the last time. I totally didn’t want to even start my 8th interval, let alone run home, but I did, and I did.

Looking back on last week, I have no idea how I managed that last time of 02:26. But this week, I managed two intervals better than my second-best from last week. Oh hell, I don’t know what it all means. I’m sure a coach could pull something out of all these numbers.

I’m taking tomorrow off entirely, and, as usual, Thursday may be a rest day, too. My legs are sorrrrrrrrrrrrre tonight, and that’s probably not a good sign. But I feel proud to have completed what I set out to do. That’s always the best part of the post-run experience.

Running update:

I just ran 3.05 miles in 28:54, for a 9:28.5 pace!

I know it was just a training run, and it was at the gym, not in the heat or on the streets and hills of Portland, but it was still damned fast. I think my speedwork is paying off. I haven’t run that fast, that far, in a while…

I kept a 9:40 pace for the first mile and a half, then bumped it up to 9:21 for the next mile and finished the last .55 miles at some crazy speed. Just kept bumping it up a little bit at a time. I think my final pace for the last .05 mile was near 8:30, which for me felt much like flying.

I concentrated on form and breathing, making sure my breathing was in rhythm with my running. I’ve noticed that I do better when I control my breathing, which may sound obvious to others but screw you, I’m the one out there running.

Next weeks’ running schedule. Um, similar to last week. The downside is that, if I don’t get up early on Thursday to run before work, I feel odd running Thursday night with a long run less than 12 hours later. So it’s optional. I’m probably over-thinking things. It’s just what I do.

• Monday: 3.5 miles training (no timing)
• Tuesday: Hills – 1 mile warmup/cooldown + 8x.25-mile uphill, jog downhill
• Wednesday: Rest day.
• Thursday: 4 miles (Optional)
• Friday: Run to work! 6 miles tempo
• Saturday: Treadmill intervals? 5 miles total.
• Sunday: Rest day.

Running update:

Today I ran about 5.25 miles while doing some speedwork at the gym. That makes my total weekly miles 20.25 (I would have had more but I didn’t run 4 miles on Thursday as planned – I did walk my 4 mile loop but I’m not counting that towards my running miles), which marks my first week with more than 20 miles total. Another goal reached. Yay, me!

My next goal, I think, is to run continuously for more than an hour, which is a record I’ll need to achieve before thinking about a half-marathon or marathon. I’m kinda nervous about planning a 7-mile run next week, though, considering I’ve only just broken the 20-mile-week barrier… but I think having runs in longer than a 10K will help me with the Pints to Pasta 10K coming up in a couple of weeks. Oh, well, I have time. I think I’ll just plan on a 6-mile run next week, then a 6.5-mile run the week after, then a 7-mile run the following week. That will leave a week for tapering before the 10K.

Ow. Ow, ow. Ow ow ow ow.

I ran hills last night. Well, technically, one hill, over and over again (eight times, actually).

The idea is, in between one mile warmup and cooldown, to run up this .3-mile stretch of hill in Sellwood Park at an easy pace, then jog or walk down, and then to go up seven more times, and to aim to improve my time by 5-10 seconds each time.

They say that hill work is speedwork in disguise, which is why I’ve been hitting the hills lately.

And, in fact, I did eventually achieve my goal. Here are the individual times (and equivalent per-mile paces):

1. 03:18 / 11:00
2. 03:03 / 10:10
3. 03:05 / 10:17
4. 02:42 / 09:00
5. 02:36 / 08:40
6. 02:36 / 08:40
7. 02:38 / 08:47
8. 02:26 / 08:07

A couple of bumps in the curve there, but like I said, I did eventually end up, on the last interval, achieving a speed within 40-80 seconds faster than I started out.

The funny part was the couple sitting at a park bench near my “finish line”, watching in amazement as I passed them, then turned around and headed back down the path, so many times. By the seventh time they had left, though, so they didn’t see my Snoopy dance when I had my final burst of speed.

And now, as I said to a friend last night, I’m taking at least one night off from running, or else my legs are going to fall off and fall apart, Daffy Duck-style. Which would be bad.

Tomorrow I’ll post the run-down on my day trip to Seattle (almost exactly a day — Woke up at 8 AM and didn’t sleep until 7 AM Sunday morning) to see Harvey Danger and hang out in Seattle (teaser: saw John Roderick of the Long Winters – did he have his frightening beard or not? Stay tuned). Also will update my POTW.

For now, want to post my running schedule for the week. It will look pretty familiar to those who remember last week:

• Monday: 3.5 miles training
• Tuesday: Hills – 1 mile warmup/cooldown + 8x.25-mile uphill, jog downhill
• Wednesday: Rest day.
• Thursday: 4 mile easy day
• Friday: Run to work! 5.5 miles tempo
• Saturday: Treadmill intervals? 5 miles total.
• Sunday: Rest day.

Unofficial time in the Run Hit Wonder Portland 2005 10K: 66:18.49.

Wow, I kinda died out there.

Not sure what happened. I showed up, I had a strategy, I got plenty of sleep last night, I had a good pre-race-day dinner (fettucine pesto e pollo from La Terrazza… mmmmmm), drank lots and lots of water, didn’t run but still exercised the past two days.

Still, I woke up with a headache, stuffy nose (took another Zyrtec for that), legs were stiff and took a while to warm up and stretch out, just felt blah.

It was funny seeing all the looks from folk wondering who all these orange-shirted people were, wandering around the city. Since there were 10,000 people entered in the race, that made for a lot of orange shirts. I must have been asked five times this morning what it was all about.

And I took a chance, and grabbed a spot near the start line. Not in the elite runner’s group, nor the 7:00-and-under pace people. I wasn’t that gutsy. But I lined up with the 8:00 pace people, and it only took me about 9 seconds to cross the start line.

I got excited and ran a little fast for the first two miles. My strategy was to aim for a 10:00 pace the first third, 9:30 pace the second third, and then hope I had enough in my for a 9:00 pace to finish. But since I ran the first mile in 9:24… uhhhh… I think I overdid it. All my miles after that were 10:00 or greater.

Maybe it was the heat. Maybe my speedwork hasn’t been enough. Maybe my allergies were kicking up. Whatever. It’s all excuses. I went out, I ran, I finished, I did what I did. On the bright side, my stretches have helped my sore heel; hardly any soreness at all. My hamstrings are a bit sore but not too bad; they finally warmed up, and I stretched well after the race. Once again, the Nike shirt for some reason really irritates my nipples. Argh. I much prefer my UnderArmor or Brooks shirts; they don’t chafe me.

I stuck around for a couple of songs from the lovely Ms. Jett, but it was hot on the field, no shade, and I didn’t have any cash to get some beer or food and didn’t feel like paying the ATM transaction fee at the park.

My reward was a delicious NW Raspberry Milkshake from Burgerville. Mmmmm.

And now that my two biggest races are past me for the year, I can go back to just running for fun, rather than training for an event. I still have another 10K I want to do, the Pints-to-Pasta in September, and I might do another 10K in August, but that’s too far away to think about just yet. Doesn’t look like I’ll be doing a half-marathon this year. Oh, well, there’s always next year.