back in the saddle

I'm aiming to start running 4-5 times per week in addition to track workouts and long runs to meet the following goals.

• 9/19 Lone Gull 10K - 53:00
• 10/3 Smuttynose Half Marathon - 2:00:00
• 10/10 BAA Half Marathon - 2:00:00

I've been bummed out for a few months because of how out of shape I've gotten. I put running on the back burner while doing lots of extra grad school and professional development work, so I'm about 10-15 pounds heavier and 10 minutes slower than I'd like to be (half marathon wise). I made a goal earlier this summer to drop the 10 pounds and 10 minutes by 10/10/10, but apart from two long runs and one track workout, I haven't done very much to pursue this goal. August may be half over, but there's still a lot of time before school starts to get back into good habits and out of the running doldrums.

new purchase: Garmin Forerunner 110

I splurged on a Garmin Forerunner 110 with heart rate monitor last week, and am very happy with it so far. It's very easy to use. All I had to do was hit the page/menu button to locate satellites, then use the start/stop button to start the run or pause at street corners. I set the autolap at 1 mile intervals so that the watch would beep and display the time it took to run each mile. It also showed the average pace for my current mile. I didn't look at my heart rate during the run, but I think it would have been easy to do so by using the page/menu button.

After the run, I connected the watch to my computer with the USB cable and uploaded the data to connect.garmin.com. I found that this process worked better with Safari than Firefox. I'm happy to not have to map my run from memory on MapMyRun and to not have to find all my mile splits by cycling through the stored ones on my watch.

My very first run with a heart rate monitor.

Running: The best cure for a hangover?

I woke up recently with a familiar pounding in the head and dry mouth, relics of a night of some drinking. Now, as veteran of drinking, I like to think that I consume at a moderate pace, but occasionally I will slip and pay for it the next morning.

A cure that I've had for a very long time has been a simple one: go for a run. Yes, Gatorade, bananas, greasy food and the hair of the dog that bit me have been tried in my experienced life. (But, alas, more alcohol and greasy foods have been proven to simply not work. And a patent, I kid you not, a patent has been applied for using asparagus.) But, they've worked to varying degrees, while running has simply always done the job consistently for me.

What is a hangover? Veisalgia (which has an interesting etymology of its own) is the formal medical term to describe the phenomenon that many drinkers experience the next morning, though there is a disagreement of which symptoms should be included in the definition. (Weise, J., Annals of Internal Medicine, Vol 132, Issue 11, p. 897, June 2000). I think most people would agree though that nausea, sensitivity to sound and light, dehydration and just general not-feeling-so-good are good descriptors for the phenomenon.

What do I do? After rousing myself out of bed, I will get into my running gear, adding the sunglasses or cap if the brightness factor forces me to, and simply go. I try to take a little bit of water or gatorade before the run, but too much and I have found that my stomach will not like it and the contents will be on the ground before me. Depending on the severity of it all, I start at a jog of about a minute or two above my marathon pace. I concentrate on my breathing and get a tempo going before I increase my pace to somewhere I finally feel comfortable.

Some days I actually impress myself. I actually will sometimes get a good 5-K time given the circumstances and come at above the median for myself. (I usually end up running 2 to 3 miles for this "recovery run.") And admittedly some other days I quit after the first mile, having achieved my goal of feeling at least human again.

Why does this work? In my google-perusals, I have found scant articles about exercise and hangovers. This one British article talks about it briefly, though it seemed to not work so well for the writer. In my non-scientific analysis, I suspect it has to do with an increased heart-rate, which results in more blood flow, and therefore more oxygen flow to the head. Also, metabolism is increased, which allows the processing in the liver of all those toxins that you ashamedly polluted your body with the night before. And finally, endorphins are released when we exercise and run (the runner's high).

While I concur that the best way to prevent a hangover is to abstain, I think that approach is a bit too much like the moral-right's approach to teen pregnancies; we all who do drink will drink again, and possibly to excess. Let's just remember the run as a good cure.

Success.

Tonight's 400 calories in 38:00 on the (beloved) T-mill was a success.  I barely noticed that I was even running.  It was still about 80 degrees, but the heat barely registered.  I've been blaming everything on hydration (and stepped up water consumption; I at least a liter of seltzer a day before I run (or bed if I'm taking a day off)) and the heat.  What I changed today was eating a snack about a half hour to 45 minutes before my run, which is terribly unusual for me (I like to run on an empty stomach or at least wait two hours after eating).  Could this be the lynch pin in my summer training?

I'm still calorie conscious as I've dropped exactly ZERO lb. these few weeks (while running 12-ish miles and netting about 1400- 1800 calories daily).  The birth control won't be out of my system (or even begun to be flushed) for another month, so maybe it's still affecting my metabolism.  I've taken to checking my body fat percentage a few times a week to see if my muscle mass is increasing.  So far, just establishing a baseline (about 30%).

Will put in paperwork to the gym tomorrow!  I hope it goes smoothly (as the membership is for us, but the funds are from a parental unit whose last name no longer matches mine), smoothly enough for an afternoon swim before dinner with the Spanish teacher!

Outdoor!

Sorry about the kitten.  She's just so cute, and I think image-heavier posts tend to hold everyone's interest.  Moving on.

So I have done TWO outdoor runs since I last posted!  They both kind of stunk (literally, as they are in the valley, which smells of sewage).  I went out with the Towpath Turtles on Sunday to Sand Run, and it was hot.  I ran with two others and we did okay (we strayed from the path, but we think about 3 mi. total).  I find I feel kind of sloshy in the heat; today I felt it in my lungs.  I DO, however, think I'm doing a much better job of hydrating throughout the day.


Tonight I stuck to the path and did about 3.5 miles, some walking (usually about half a minute to a minute).  I felt sluggish in the heat, but mostly okay.  I wish I felt better about it, but not every run has to be a victory.  I think the Sand Run jogging trail is 6 miles total, so it may become my near daily run (since the path is just a couple miles from home).  My plan is to run with some SARC people twice a week (poky run on Sundays, track workout Tuesdays?), run on the (beloved) T-mill twice a week (easy mileage or speedwork, depending), and then do 4-7 miles outdoors at either my mother's or the Sand Run path (the former when school starts again). 

We are also joining a GYM!  My mother is gifting us a membership!  It has two pools, and access to lap lanes is open most of the time, so I can get back to swimming!  Also, one of the SARC ladies is a member and will meet up with me to lift weights.  Better break out the weight-training books.

Maybe, MAYBE will run the towpath half marathon on 10.10.10.  I think if I build mileage these next couple of weeks, then finagle a training plan that includes a couple of ten-milers and lots of cross-training (SWIM!), I might be able to fit to run it by October.  Probably won't PR, but it might feel pretty good to feel closer to my former fitness (a la me and Liz at the 2008 Hermes 10-Miler!):

Crap.

Too hot, I guess.  I like to run pretty empty-stomached and had finished eating by about 2:00 today.  Around 8:00, I had a fruit leather.  So by 10:00, I was sure I wasn't too full of food to run.  I set the (beloved) T-mill at 400 calories over 38 minutes, and felt pretty strong until just after the first big interval.  Queasy!  I hopped of with ten minutes to go.  Boo. 

Tomorrow, my window to run is something like 3:30-4:30 (garage sale clean-up/husband time, AM; James Taylor and Carole King with my mom, PM), which is likely to be HOTTER. 

Today's problems and tomorrow's solutions:

1. Heat- Okay, I can't fix the weather.  But maybe I can convince the Writer to haul out a box fan and position it for me.  May also try wetting my hair before I run.

2. Hydration- I had a couple of drinks last night (as I do every night lately, because I don't have to work!) and may not have properly re-hydrated throughout the day, especially for this kind of heat.

3. Sloshy belly- Eat more throughout the day.  I had a small breakfast and was STARVING by lunch, of which I then ate a ton.  I'd also been feeling some digestive upset in the morning; perhaps eating something gentler (or taking some Pepto) would have helped.

Still not feeling very confident about running on the roads, or about joining the running club.  Their next meeting is Tuesday, so I may just show up and ask some questions (and join the pre-meeting run?).  I could use some solidarity, I guess...they also have a slower division/sub-club.  They might turn out to be my people!

Now to shower off my shame...

10 and 10 by 10/10/10

I am aiming to lose 1o pounds and knock 10 minutes off my half marathon time by 10/10/10. Today I went to my first track workout since April. I'm going to be sore tomorrow (in fact, am super sore right now) but am excited to finally have some time to devote to running, yoga, and going to the gym.

2.5 miles warmup

A2 workout: 600-1000-1000-600-1000-600, 4x150 hills

2.5 miles cooldown