Category: exercise

Been feeling slow and fat lately, so I wanted a hard workout. I figured if I could be speedy and go the distance, I’d earn a tasty eggnog milkshake for dinner from Mike’s Drive-In. But I’d have to really earn it.

I decided on my crazy double-figure-8 loop modification of my normal Waterfront/Esplanade loop, which I guesstimate at 4.2 miles, give-or-take (I’ll check the actual distance and post it later). The weather was good, not too warm not too cold, overcast but not cloudy and definitely not raining. Wore my Adidas, shorts and a sleeveless shirt and my lucky Adidas hat. Running music was Foo Fighters.

And… I kept a steady pace, never significantly broke stride (I had to stop very briefly twice to cross Front Ave., and once right around the 3.5 mile mark I accidentally stopped to walk for about 10 steps before going back to a jog). I felt like I could maintain that pace forever, and, truthfully, I probably can, but it wasn’t the hard race-pace workout that I intended.

I finished in 51:34, though, which is definitely more towards the slow-but-steady and not in the hard-workout area. So my pace was a turtle-ish 12:16. Argh. So sad, I’m so sad, and not just because that means I didn’t really earn the eggnog milkshake. I really want to be faster. I’m not sure what’s holding me back.

So, a salad and some soy milk for dinner tonight. Yay. Tomorrow I’ll rest and then Wednesday I’m going to find some speed drills to work on.

In other news, I felt a sharp pain in my right foot stepping off the bus onto the edge of a curb. That’s the foot that’s been sore. At the race yesterday, I was talking about my heel pain (plantar fasciitis?) with a therapist and he suggested hydrotherapy. I expected on some numbness this morning, caused by all the hills I ran yesterday, but it wasn’t there. Oh, and I’m now wearing slippers with a fairly supportive sole; I read that it helps heal plantar fasciitis if you make sure to give the foot support in the morning right out of bed until it’s warmed up. So maybe that helped me. We’ll see. But then I stretched it out, painfully so, tonight getting off the bus. Argh. Again, rotten luck lately.

I and my 13-year-old nephew ran in the First Annual Run for the Cheetah 5K yesterday and had a great time. I didn’t really expect a lot of people, but there were about 500 entrants, according to the announcer guy. Also, it wasn’t raining, which is always a plus.

There were, however, hills. The course was an out-and-back loop, starting at the front entrance to the Oregon Zoo, going northerly uphill to Kingston Drive, then down, down, down hill, before turning around and coming back uphill.

My dad showed up to get pictures, but because we were faster than I thought we’d be we came in before dad got there. Oh, well, next race.

This was my nephew’s third race, and he did great. We stuck together, and we crossed the finish line in 37:07, give or take (I had some technical problems with my watch), but I’ll be sure to post the official time when the results go up. Which will probably be soon because it was a ChampionChip timed event.

He makes a great running partner and I hope that he’s caught the running bug enough to keep it up. I think the next one we’re going to do together is the Run Like Hell 5K on October 30th – probably not in costume, at least for me…

OK, more running stuff:

Ran at the gym tonight. One mile warmup and cooldown at about 10:20, and in-between I did four sets of 4:00 at 9:00 pace and 2:00 of “active recovery” (around 10:30-11:00 pace). Total miles were 4.45, giving me 7.93 miles so far for the week. I ran in my Adidas.

Ran tonight. It was a gorgeous fall evening, still warm and bright when I got out of work, so I ran outside and downtown, around the waterfront. I wanted a bit longer than the 2.8 miles or so of my normal loop, but not the full twice-around distance, so I planned on adding the Hawthorne Bridge, east and then back west, to finish on the same side of the river. I figured it added almost a mile, and Google Earth tells me that the distance I ran was 3.48 miles.

I was strong and steady the whole distance, not breaking stride to walk or pausing for water. I wasn’t especially fast, but concentrated on maintaining an even pace. The last mile felt a bit slower because I had to dodge around so many people! Lots of pedestrians and cyclists on the bridge last night!

It felt like about a 10:00 pace or so, and I watched my posture and my breathing. I ran in my Asics. I like the Asics over the Adidas; I’ve gotten used to the feel of the gel, it’s not as wobbly-feeling as it was at first. I ran in a short-sleeved shirt (this year’s Run Hit Wonder shirt, bright orange; only saw two others wearing the same shirt tonight) and shorts. Also used my inhaler before, one shot.

My final time was 37:33, for an actual pace of 10:47. I swear it wasn’t that slow, though.

Tomorrow I’m doing some kind of speed workout. If the weather holds, I’ll go home and do hills in Sellwood Park. If not, I’ll hit the gym and repeat my treadmill interval workout from last week. I also plan on running Thursday, and Friday I plan on running in to work. Saturday, rest day, and Sunday is a race, the Run for the Cheetah, which I’m doing with my nephew, just for fun.

Lately, it seems, my hobbies (that is, the things I do by choice, not because it’s my duty or obligation) boil down to:

1. Running
2. Sleeping

I spent the entire weekend in or near my apartment. Saturday was a dull gray day, one of those kinds of days for which they invented the word “dreary”. I was planning on going for a run but it was too cold and whenever I was ready to run (either right out of bed or two hours after lunch) it was raining. I did go for a short 2-3 mile walk, but since the middle part of that walk was spent in the Iron Horse scarfing down a huge lunch I’m not sure that counted as exercise.

Sunday I planned on going for a run, along with cleaning up my apartment and going out and being social, but, well, only one of those got done, and since I’m complaining about doing nothing but sleeping and running I’ll bet you can figure out which one. My run was 7.5 miles, and, knowing that I wasn’t all that energetic, I should have left my watch at home, because I was sure to be disappointed no matter what my time. For the record, I ran the 7.5 miles (with frequent walking-breaks) in 1:24:46, for a pace of 11:18. I know, I know, for longer runs it’s OK to go slower than shorter runs, but, dammit, I’ve done that exact run in much better time and under worse conditions (hot and muggy). Oh, well, I’ll do better next time.

But, yeah, the sleeping. I napped both Saturday and Sunday, and above and beyond the napping slept for at least 12 hours each night. I even ended up sleeping in this morning and not getting into work until 1:00 PM. Sleep is practically my second hobby.

I’m not even sure it’s depression; more like a general apathy towards anything that’s not sleeping. No motivation. I’m not sure what’s keeping me running other than perhaps a psychological inertia.

Meh.

One more running post:

Ran at the gym tonight. Wanted to do a speed workout, so, after poking around the blogs and Runner’s World, came up with this one, that I thought would be OK for a treadmill:

Warmup (1 mile easy), then do one set of 4:00 at 5K pace followed by 2:00 of active recovery (jogging or slow run, not walking). Repeat at least 4 times (the suggestion was 4-6 times; I figured for my first speed workout in several weeks I’d aim for 4 sets). My best 5K pace was 9:27, but, because of the treadmill settings, I did them at 9:22 pace. For the recovery I set it around 11:06.

Just because I wanted to keep the times in even minute increments, instead of a mile warmup, I did 10:00 even, then started my sets. By the end of the second set, I was sweating even more than usual, but still not out of breath. I did all 4 sets and took a quick stop for water, then finished my 2:00 of recovery, then did a nice easy jog of a mile to finish, then cooled down with a quarter mile of walking.

Total running miles were 4.35, giving me 12.1 for the week so far.

Next week, if I do this workout again, I’ll aim for 5 sets total. Or I could do 4 sets at a faster pace, like around 9:00. Choices…

Tomorrow is a rest day, then Saturday I’ll do my long run for the week, 7.5 miles, for a total of 19.6. Next week I am aiming for over 20 miles, which I will probably do by extending the long run another mile.

Ran at the gym last night. Wanted to do 4 miles, and I did do 4 miles, although slower than I’d like and I did have to take a quick water break at mile 3, but I swear I only was off the treadmill for as long as it took to walk briskly over to the water fountain, gulp down about 2 cups of water, stride back and start ‘er up again.

Finished the 4 miles in 41:00 almost exactly, which averages to a 10:15 pace, but it felt good. First 2 miles were at 10:10 pace, then did a brisk quarter-mile at 8:34 pace, then slowed back down to around a 9:50 pace for the next mile, took my water break, then finished around 10:00 pace. Tried to finish strong by upping my pace and kinda lost track but still felt like I had some run left in me when I stepped off.

Tonight I’m going to do some kind of speed workout. If the weather’s nice enough I’ll go home and do my hills, if not, then I’ll hit the gym and try some intervals on the treadmill.

Ran today. Ran in the gym, since the weather has been so unpredictable. Was planning on running for 3 or 4 miles, and, well, my problems started when I didn’t decide, in advance, how many miles I would actually run. That lack of decisiveness hurt me from the very beginning.

I didn’t get to the gym until 5:30-ish, and all of the “good” treadmills were taken, so I had to start out on one of the sucky treadmills. I did my quarter-mile warmup and kept an eye on the “good” treadmills, and, sure enough, one of them opened up during my warmup.

But when I started my actual run, I couldn’t find my pace, and I couldn’t get my breathing to sync with my pace, leaving me short of breath. With the damp weather, and my profound lack of eating discipline in the past couple of days (I’ve been eating as though I’m on vacation… well, technically, I am on vacation) were both indications that I should have used my inhaler before the run. I didn’t, and I suffered.

By the time I hit 2 miles, I was still having trouble breathing in rhythm with my running, and I’d lowered my pace to what felt far too slow; I didn’t think I’d ever finish 4 miles. I’d just keep lowering the pace, further and further, and the virtual finish line would get further and further away, until I ended up dying of exhaustion before 4.0 ever appeared on the readout. I was running a version of Zeno’s Paradoxes.

Plus, my stomach, having been fed a bunch of crap over the past few days, was continuing its rebellion against running by producing lots of gas, which escaped noisily during my exercise. It was not pretty. So, I took a bathroom break. During the break I decided that, come hell or high water, I would go the full 4 miles, as punishment for… well, for not running so well. Hey, it made sense at the time.

But when I got back on the floor, all the “good” treadmills were taken again. I had to run on one of the “bad” treadmills. I hate that. After a little over a quarter-mile, though, one of the “good” ones opened up again, so I moved over there. As a bonus, since, in my mind, at least, I was incredibly smelly and stinky, there was no one on either side of me, subjected to my odor.

I finished the full 4 miles, but only by including the final quarter-mile of cool down in the total. Yeah, I cheated. It was not a good run.

Plus, my new Asics aggravated the blister on my right ankle that my new Adidas caused yesterday. My left blister was fine, if a bit sore, because I was smart and put some moleskin over it. But the one on the right hadn’t been bothering me, so I hadn’t covered it up. Bleah. At least I didn’t bleed too much on my new Asics. Other than the blisters, the shoes are working fine. I still prefer the Adidas for stability but the Asics feel fine on the soft treadmill.

Tomorrow I’m doing another 4 miles and I’m doing it all in one stretch; no more breaks in the middle. I’m putting my foot down (yeah, that’s a runner’s joke).

I haven’t been doing too well on the Friday Cat Blogging lately. I have a few pictures of Smacky that I could post but just haven’t. Maybe I’m feeling oppressed by the whole “do it on Friday” part? I don’t know. I just don’t like obligations, I guess. I’m anti-authoritarian.

Today is Day 2 of my “vacation”. I originally planned to take this time off to celebrate my being debt-free, but between donating to the victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Apple’s iPod nano, and buying new shoes, I kinda-sorta delayed my long-awaited debt-free-ish-ness. But I still wanted to take some time off. Now I’m fighting the urge to fly off somewhere (which will only serve to push my debt-free-ish-ness out even further). Maybe I’ll just go to the beach; that doesn’t cost much money.

I ran yesterday and today, both times at the gym because the weather has been rainy. Yesterday I was planning on doing 7 miles, but it’s so freaking boring running at the gym that all I could do was 4.5 miles.

I still wanted to do a nice long run (more than an hour) so today I decided I would buckle down and knock out the whole 7 miles. I did split it up, though; after a quarter-mile of warmup walking, I did 2 miles at about a 10:00 pace, then stopped to stretch out, then did 3 miles at around a 9:20 pace, then stretched again (and took a bathroom break; my digestive system doesn’t cooperate on long runs like I wish it would), and then finished up with a mile at a 9:00 pace and then a nice slow 10:30 pace for the final mile, and then walked another quarter-mile to cool down.

Oh, and after my first 2 miles, I noticed that my new Adidas were giving me a blister on my left ankle. Ow. Good thing I had some moleskin with me. But now there’s blood on my new shoes. Ugh. Then, during my final 2 miles, I noticed another blister on my other ankle! Ow x 2. I guess I have to wear the taller socks with these shoes. Dammit. Those blisters really stung in the shower.

I was very hungry afterward, and it took me nearly an hour to shower up and then catch a bus to my favorite restaurant, the Iron Horse, by which time I was nearly passing out from hunger. Not good to wait so long but once I got my food it was worth it.

I went running tonight, for the first time in my new Asics, around the waterfront. I took last week off from running because my heel had been really hurting me. I hoped that taking a week off from high-impact running (I still went to the gym and biked and did the elliptical trainer and walked) it would give my foot and tendons a chance to heal. And I think it was a wise decision. Prior to the past two weeks, I had been training hard (for me), putting in more miles per week than I have ever done, and doing hills and speed work every single week. And it mostly paid off, but this old boy needed a small break after that to recharge.

But, damn, I miss running. It makes such a huge difference in my mental outlook. I and my friends can tell when I haven’t been running. I’m much more passive and on edge. Even working up a huge sweat on the stationary bike doesn’t do the same for me that a run in the fresh air does.

The tendons in the sole of my foot, and along the inside of my ankle, still hurt a bit from about the half-mile mark to the mile mark, and a little bit after that, but for the rest of the run (about 3 miles) I felt fine. I will see how they feel in the morning, which has been when they hurt the worst.

I was also not pushing the pace; I ran just fast enough that I could still whistle or sing if I wanted to, or talk. In fact, I said hello to several other runners and bikers. If I had had a running companion I could have kept up a conversation. The weather was perfect; we’re having a nice warm break before the fall starts to set in. It was just warm enough to where I felt good in shorts and short-sleeved shirt.

The new shoes feel good, but two negatives stood out. They’re not major things but I wanted to make a note of them. First, I have to work out the lacing because the left shoe was too tight across the top of my foot. That’s just a matter of playing with it, though; it took me a couple of runs before I got my Nike Structure Triax laces set right, for example. Second, though, and a bit more important, is perhaps related to the fact that they have a gel insole; there was just a bit too much side to side motion of my foot, and this was on concrete and asphalt and metal gratings, not grass or gravel. It made me feel just a little bit unstable in them. Maybe once I get the lacing set up right, and the shoes get broken in, that feeling will go away. I will watch for that.

But, other than that, it felt so damned good to be out and running. I’m blessed (in a totally secular non-supernatural way) to have found my health at this seeming late stage of my life. I’m thankful for being able to move and enjoy myself in a way that made no sense to Brian the Younger. Silly boy. What on earth was he thinking?

For the rest of the week I think I’m just going to play it by ear, and aim for 20 or so miles total. What I don’t get to during the week I’ll just pile onto a long run on the weekend. Next week I’ll come up with a couple of goals, like speed work or something. I have a couple of fall races to look forward to, but I’m not “in training” for anything serious for the winter.