Due to the unfortunate passing of my Grandma and her funeral at the beginning of this week, I’ve been at my parent’s house for four days and unable to run. (Not entirely unable, but it didn’t really work out timewise. I’m also not exactly sad about skipping a run on gravel roads. Not at all.) So, it’s been almost an entire week since my sneakers hit the treadmill. This will be fun.
After I made it back to St. Louis safe and sound, I headed up to the gym to get my run in before the after work crowd showed up. I opted to walk to the gym, and I quickly realized this was a bad idea. It was only about 37 degrees cooler than the surface of the sun and the humidity clogged my airways. Good thing I wasn’t running outside today. I also quickly realized how crappy this run would be due to the 18 mosquito/chigger bites populating my feet from the ankle down. I had been to an outdoor bar over the weekend and the bug population used my feet as their own personal buffet...causing the tops of my feet and ankles to swell with their nasty little poison. I’ve been trying not to scratch for the past four days, but that’s like telling Lady Gaga to act like a lady. Not easy. The swelling has gone down some, but not enough that they don’t rub on my shoes with every step I take. Wonderful.
It was only 4:40, so I grabbed one of my preferred treadmills and did a quick 5-minute warmup. My original goal for this week was to walk/run the entire 3.1 miles in whatever time it took me. I figured with my current pace, I could finish in under 40 minutes, so I’d just set the time at that. With not doing much cardio for 6 days, I wasn’t sure this was the best idea for today. But I went ahead and pushed 40 minutes into the time and figured I could stop anytime after 30, if I was really struggling.
My interval today was walk 1 minute, run for 5, rather than the alternating 1 and 2-minute walks from last week. I figured I should be able to clear a bit more than 2.61 miles (in 30 min), since I was cutting out just a few minutes of walking and changing those to runs. Nope...2.62. In 30 minutes. (I opted to NOT try the entire 3.1 miles today. Don’t judge me.) I completely forgot about my upping the run speed to 5.5 instead of 5.3. See, this is what happens when a whole week goes by in between runs. I probably could have cleared more than what I did if I ran a bit faster. I did kick the last two minutes up to a 5.9. But geez, who wants to run that fast all the time?
I mostly tried not to think about running, which usually led my thoughts into thinking about how badly I wanted to rip my shoes off and scratch my feet until there wasn’t any skin left to scratch. So, to take my mind off of that, I thought about running, which was not the best of ideas either. No one at the gym entertained me today, which was really disappointing. Only 3 days left this week to get in my final 2 runs. Should be interesting.
Training Day #20 - July 15, 2010
I should not have run tonight. I had the energy of a sloth. A sloth on downers. It was not pretty. I again walked to the gym and was glistening like a pig in the 6 minutes it took me to get there. And my feet were on fiyah. Damn me and my tasty-mosquito-loving blood.
I played musical treadmills again tonight. The first one didn’t have a TV that worked. The second one had a TV that worked, but once I picked my channel, I realized the treadmill itself didn’t work. That could be a potential problem. By the time I realized this, some other chick had picked the treadmill with the non-working TV. To my relief, there was one more open. To my horror, it was the loud squeaky one on the end. Hmmm...dilemma. Do I go to Squeakers or do I patiently wait for someone to get off another one? Screw it, I’ll use Squeaks, I don’t feel like taking any longer than humanly possible at the gym tonight.
I found the Cards game on the telly (hoping to catch a glimpse of my sis and the fam) and quickly increased the volume ten-fold on my mp3 player and away I went. Sort of. I remembered that this is the treadmill that won’t let me manually switch between speeds with the single press of a button. This one either has the completely manual option or the interval option. The interval option only allows for their specific time increments (unless you start manually changing things which really defeats the purpose of the presets). Shoot. I went with interval training and chose the one with the 2 minute walk/6 minute run. Imagine your favorite cuss word. Yep, I said them all right then. 62 times. I was somewhat managing occasional full 5-minute runs. Now, I would have to bump it up to 6. For every run. Mother of God.
After two minutes of a brisk 4.5 walk, I was ready to call it quits. I even contemplated just throwing in the towel and only getting two runs in this week. I really did not want to run at all. It was a struggle from start to finish. Both mentally and physically. Not to mention the searing pain in my knee. After 30 minutes, I barely squeezed out the 2.62 miles on the display screen. I wish I could be proud of that, but to my disgrace, I hopped off the treadmill for quick 15-20-second breaks more often that I’m willing to admit. And I leaned on the treadmill. A lot. So my actual time was a bit lower than that. I just could not muster the energy to get it done tonight.
I think part of the problem is that my weekly schedule is completely off this week. My sleeping schedule, eating schedule, running schedule, you name it, my world is on it’s arse this week. I’ve found that when I’m rocking a set schedule, I do better. I feel better, and I can run more cleanly (by that, I mean that I don’t huff and puff as much, and I don’t lean on the treadmill for support. Basically, I don’t look like an idiot.) When everything is off, my running is off. And boy, was that apparent tonight. Hopefully, after this weekend, I can get back onto a proper schedule next week and get back into gear. Because I’m hoping I can step up and complete the entire 3.1 miles next week. Heh, we’ll see.
Side note: My towel, my tank and my britches had not a single dry speck on any of them. Sweat was the understatement of the century tonight. I nearly tripped 3 times while trying to wipe the saltiness out of my eyes while running. I’m contemplating the thought of a sweatband. I mean really, how can that NOT be sexy? Right?
Second side note: While walking to the gym, a tasty treat ran past me. Half nekkid. I was half inclined to say eff the gym and tear off after him as his hot buns trotted off down the street. I’m not embarrassed to admit I stared at his backside until he turned a corner and out of my line of vision (maybe he felt my eyes boring into him). I was delighted that he was running in my neighborhood (hey, he could be a neighbor!), but I thought it would be a bit stalkerish to follow him. Not to mention that I probably would have only been able to keep up with him for a block or so, since he was clearly in better shape than I. Sigh.
I played musical treadmills again tonight. The first one didn’t have a TV that worked. The second one had a TV that worked, but once I picked my channel, I realized the treadmill itself didn’t work. That could be a potential problem. By the time I realized this, some other chick had picked the treadmill with the non-working TV. To my relief, there was one more open. To my horror, it was the loud squeaky one on the end. Hmmm...dilemma. Do I go to Squeakers or do I patiently wait for someone to get off another one? Screw it, I’ll use Squeaks, I don’t feel like taking any longer than humanly possible at the gym tonight.
I found the Cards game on the telly (hoping to catch a glimpse of my sis and the fam) and quickly increased the volume ten-fold on my mp3 player and away I went. Sort of. I remembered that this is the treadmill that won’t let me manually switch between speeds with the single press of a button. This one either has the completely manual option or the interval option. The interval option only allows for their specific time increments (unless you start manually changing things which really defeats the purpose of the presets). Shoot. I went with interval training and chose the one with the 2 minute walk/6 minute run. Imagine your favorite cuss word. Yep, I said them all right then. 62 times. I was somewhat managing occasional full 5-minute runs. Now, I would have to bump it up to 6. For every run. Mother of God.
After two minutes of a brisk 4.5 walk, I was ready to call it quits. I even contemplated just throwing in the towel and only getting two runs in this week. I really did not want to run at all. It was a struggle from start to finish. Both mentally and physically. Not to mention the searing pain in my knee. After 30 minutes, I barely squeezed out the 2.62 miles on the display screen. I wish I could be proud of that, but to my disgrace, I hopped off the treadmill for quick 15-20-second breaks more often that I’m willing to admit. And I leaned on the treadmill. A lot. So my actual time was a bit lower than that. I just could not muster the energy to get it done tonight.
I think part of the problem is that my weekly schedule is completely off this week. My sleeping schedule, eating schedule, running schedule, you name it, my world is on it’s arse this week. I’ve found that when I’m rocking a set schedule, I do better. I feel better, and I can run more cleanly (by that, I mean that I don’t huff and puff as much, and I don’t lean on the treadmill for support. Basically, I don’t look like an idiot.) When everything is off, my running is off. And boy, was that apparent tonight. Hopefully, after this weekend, I can get back onto a proper schedule next week and get back into gear. Because I’m hoping I can step up and complete the entire 3.1 miles next week. Heh, we’ll see.
Side note: My towel, my tank and my britches had not a single dry speck on any of them. Sweat was the understatement of the century tonight. I nearly tripped 3 times while trying to wipe the saltiness out of my eyes while running. I’m contemplating the thought of a sweatband. I mean really, how can that NOT be sexy? Right?
Second side note: While walking to the gym, a tasty treat ran past me. Half nekkid. I was half inclined to say eff the gym and tear off after him as his hot buns trotted off down the street. I’m not embarrassed to admit I stared at his backside until he turned a corner and out of my line of vision (maybe he felt my eyes boring into him). I was delighted that he was running in my neighborhood (hey, he could be a neighbor!), but I thought it would be a bit stalkerish to follow him. Not to mention that I probably would have only been able to keep up with him for a block or so, since he was clearly in better shape than I. Sigh.
Training Day #21 - July 17, 2010
Success. I like running on Saturdays better than after work during the week. First, I’m not mentally exhausted and I’m not stiff from sitting at a computer all day. I can get up, have a yummy breakfast and power through a run in the morning, while still having the rest of my day to do whatever I want. I was up bright and early this morning to mow my neglected yard while it was still cool and humidity free. After that, I took a quick break to watch some HGTV (man, I love that channel) and then headed up to the gym.
It was still fairly “cool” this morning, so the walk wasn’t exhausting. I got my favorite treadmill (it doesn’t squeak or shake, the TV works and it does manual intervals) and I confidently pressed 40 minutes into the timer. I was determined to finish the 3.1 miles if it killed me. But, really, as long as I did 30 minutes, that was A-OK in my book. I just wanted to leave the option open.
I opted for some quicker intervals than Thursday night, so I did a 2-minute walk/4-minute run, then the rest of the time was 1.5-minute walk/4.5-minute run. I’m proud to say that my “hop-offs” were definitely less frequent than earlier this week and I didn’t feel the need to lean on the treadmill for support as much. I’ll be happy when I don’t have to lean on the treadmill at all or hop off to catch my breath, but I’m not getting my hopes up too fast. I also kept my walk speeds at 4.4 or 4.5 and my run speeds at 5.5 and up to 5.7 on the last run.
Score. 2.63 miles in 30 minutes. Yahooooooo! After my final run with the last 4.5 minutes, I switched over to my fast walk for 2 more minutes. By the time that was over, the time was 32 minutes and the distance was 2.79 miles. I figured that if I was that close to the end, I might as well power through and see just how long it would take me. I had guessed 36 minutes, based on my average of 12 minute miles. I reached that beautiful 3.1 on the display screen at exactly 35:23 minutes. Nice. I have never been so happy to press the stop button on a treadmill in my life.
I’m not sure if it was the lawnmowing warmup or the late morning hour, but I felt good when I was finished. Good enough to do some weights and abs for a half hour or so afterward. I hope this will help get me back on schedule and push me forward in the right direction.
I can’t believe I’ve already completed 8 weeks of running. EIGHT WEEKS, people! Who would have ever thought. And I also can’t believe that this is the halfway point. Only 9 more weeks to go. I feel good about where I am (I hope I didn’t just jinx myself) and kinda look forward to seeing just how far I can push myself from here. Wish me luck.
Side note to the girl saving her spot on a treadmill with her outdated Walkman headphones: Sorry I stole your treadmill, but come on, you have to leave more stuff on there than that for people to realize it’s being reserved. And get some better headphones, I thought maybe someone had left them there for a reason (i.e. they were trying to get rid of them.)
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