Hi. I’ve not really been good at running this week (two meh treadmill miles on Monday). But I have a couple of good excuses!
1. Insomnia- I couldn’t sleep on Monday night and it kind of threw me off all week.
2. I have just started not one, but TWO jobs! The best part is that one is at a specialty running store, so I am learning quite a bit about shoes, for one, but also about the running community in Cleveland. I think it will be a boon to my fitness (since I am allowed to write up my schedule based on when I run so that it doesn’t interfere with work).
Still thinking about fall races (but feeling less confident about a half-marathon in under two hours): USAF 10K with Jimmy Page on September 20th? Boston half-marathon on October 12th? Both? None of this REALLY matters if I can’t get myself out the door to train, but there’s something about paying for the race that really pushes (shames?) me.
The plan for tonight is five miles in the (hopefully cooling) evening after hydrating all day at the store. Worst case, half an hour or so of speedwork on the treadmill. Must get it into my head that these fall races are only a few weeks away!
Friday, August 22, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Praise be to all who raise their heart beats
I'm happy to rejoice with you about running. I'm also, for personal and professional reasons, anonymous. I'm worried that this blog will eat up much of my time, but the benefits will be:
1) better running & health,
2) a creative writing outlet, and
3) a communal internet space.
This blog is a new relationship for me, so here's the best link I could find on my framework for healthy vs. unhealthy realtionships.
I recently passed a hump point with running. I released myself from having to run 5 km at a time, and have started anew. No more criteria, just free running for now.
3.46 km, jogging and walking, 29 minutes.
1) better running & health,
2) a creative writing outlet, and
3) a communal internet space.
This blog is a new relationship for me, so here's the best link I could find on my framework for healthy vs. unhealthy realtionships.
I recently passed a hump point with running. I released myself from having to run 5 km at a time, and have started anew. No more criteria, just free running for now.
3.46 km, jogging and walking, 29 minutes.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Mmm…munching on gnocchi with pesto after what was my best run in recent memory. I don’t know if it was my mood (maybe I should always start off a run grumpy and distracted?), the music (standout track: “Where Is the Love?,” by the Black-Eyed Peas, BPM a mere 94), or the timing (I went out in the evening), but everything just felt perfect. I switched up my two-mile and three-mile routes and ran them out of order, so maybe I tricked myself into thinking it was a shorter run? I think the dusk played a factor, the dying light playing tricks and making me feel speedier. Also, I think I was distracted by the scenery, because, unlike the mid-mornings when I usually run, people are out walking their dogs en masse when it’s a clear and cool evening in August in Cleveland. I had to step around a dog/walker pair at least every block. Saw only two other runners, though: a real jock running shirtless (probably a JCU athlete, newly back on campus), and a young skinny guy with a bouncy gait wearing a shirt from Second Sole (where I’ve never been, and which reminded me that they have a running club that I must check out).
Whatever it was tonight, I am the closest to high from running I’ve ever been. I felt spry and lithe and gazelle-like and indefatigable. I felt like I’d won the race when I pounded into my driveway as the sun went down, and was unsurprised to see that I’d run faster than I expected. Though I have been trying to run more slowly than race pace (my last race, the half, was at 10:11, so I’m aiming for 11:00 or so) on long-ish runs, I think I ran these five miles between 9:45 and 9:30, so it was an unintentional tempo run, I guess.
ONLY one drawback: I realized at about mile 4.9 that my blister from these moccasins (photo from Target.com) had not, in fact, completely healed. But I’m over it.
Whatever it was tonight, I am the closest to high from running I’ve ever been. I felt spry and lithe and gazelle-like and indefatigable. I felt like I’d won the race when I pounded into my driveway as the sun went down, and was unsurprised to see that I’d run faster than I expected. Though I have been trying to run more slowly than race pace (my last race, the half, was at 10:11, so I’m aiming for 11:00 or so) on long-ish runs, I think I ran these five miles between 9:45 and 9:30, so it was an unintentional tempo run, I guess.
ONLY one drawback: I realized at about mile 4.9 that my blister from these moccasins (photo from Target.com) had not, in fact, completely healed. But I’m over it.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
CRC track workout
A2 400-400-800-400-400-1200-400-400-2000
400s at 1 second per lap slower than current 5k fitness pace, 800s at 5k pace, 1200 at 2 seconds per lap slower, 2000 @ 4 seconds per lap slower than 5k pace. Recovery is 50-90% of the time it took to do the previous interval.
After throwing the frisbee for about fifty minutes, I ran a few laps to warm up and did the following splits:
400 --> 1:56 (7:44 pace)
400 --> 1:54 (7:36 pace)
800 --> 3:59 (7:58 pace)
400 --> 1:53 (7:32 pace)
400 --> 1:51 (7:24 pace)
1200 --> 5:48 (7:44 pace)
400 --> 1:47 (7:08 pace)
400 --> 1:52 (7:28 pace)
2000 --> 9:56 (7:57 pace)
I still need to figure out what my 5K pace is. I wasn't dying after each interval the way I was at Quasar track workouts (where I ran 400m splits in about 1:27). Maybe I have just gotten faster this summer. I signed up for a 5 miler and a 25K in the first week of September--those will tell me if I've actually gotten faster or not!
400s at 1 second per lap slower than current 5k fitness pace, 800s at 5k pace, 1200 at 2 seconds per lap slower, 2000 @ 4 seconds per lap slower than 5k pace. Recovery is 50-90% of the time it took to do the previous interval.
After throwing the frisbee for about fifty minutes, I ran a few laps to warm up and did the following splits:
400 --> 1:56 (7:44 pace)
400 --> 1:54 (7:36 pace)
800 --> 3:59 (7:58 pace)
400 --> 1:53 (7:32 pace)
400 --> 1:51 (7:24 pace)
1200 --> 5:48 (7:44 pace)
400 --> 1:47 (7:08 pace)
400 --> 1:52 (7:28 pace)
2000 --> 9:56 (7:57 pace)
I still need to figure out what my 5K pace is. I wasn't dying after each interval the way I was at Quasar track workouts (where I ran 400m splits in about 1:27). Maybe I have just gotten faster this summer. I signed up for a 5 miler and a 25K in the first week of September--those will tell me if I've actually gotten faster or not!
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
beep you, malaise
Distance: 5.98 miles
Time: 55:44
Pace: 9:20/mile
Temperature: 72 degrees
Time of Day: 4:00 p.m.
The sun is back and so are my happy spirits. I made a last minute decision to go further down Concord Ave than I usually go (instead of investigating the "butt hill"). I turned left on Walden St because it seemed familiar from my walk to Danehy fields last week. However, once it turned into Reservoir St I realized that Cambridge geography could not possibly be that simple. I asked a kind passerby at the corner of Reservoir St and Huron Ave what the quickest way to the river was, and she directed me right to the intersection of Brattle and Mt. Auburn. Sweetness! The lieutenant of the toes is doing a little better.
Time: 55:44
Pace: 9:20/mile
Temperature: 72 degrees
Time of Day: 4:00 p.m.
The sun is back and so are my happy spirits. I made a last minute decision to go further down Concord Ave than I usually go (instead of investigating the "butt hill"). I turned left on Walden St because it seemed familiar from my walk to Danehy fields last week. However, once it turned into Reservoir St I realized that Cambridge geography could not possibly be that simple. I asked a kind passerby at the corner of Reservoir St and Huron Ave what the quickest way to the river was, and she directed me right to the intersection of Brattle and Mt. Auburn. Sweetness! The lieutenant of the toes is doing a little better.
At the risk of sounding too cutesy (and with rainbows!)...
Quick three-miler this morning, first since I've been back. I have been out of town (driving through the Catskills, Poughkeepsie, and Ithaca, accompanied by nearly perfect weather and rainbows as apologies when the weather wasn’t quite ideal). There was nothing remarkable about this run: it was my normal route (down Belvoir to Fairmount, east to Green, then back up Green to Baintree, across Belvoir and then home), the weather was pleasant, my joints felt good, and I was generally happy to be out moving again after a few days stuck in a car. A few nights ago, I was talking with a good friend who asked in passing about my running. I talked about mileage and goals and said mostly that I was happy that it was making me feel strong. He said simply, “You always were strong, Wendy; the running just made you realize it.” So today when I ran, I ran with the knowledge that I was already strong, and it made me veritably fly across the concrete, humming “Melt With You,” by Modern English (158 BPM).
the lieutenant of the toes
has fallen off. Rather, the toenail on the ring toe of my right foot has fallen off. With it has gone the malaise...I think. The sun is out, I have a new green quilt, and am feeling more comfortable about school (just crossing my fingers that I'll get a schedule finalized by the end of the week). Today I will try to explore the hills in the Porter Square neighborhood. My friend Sarah had an Olympics party recently, and I accidentally walked up a huge hill to get to her house. She and her roommates apparently all have amazing butt muscles from traipsing up that hill every day--time to fire up the ipod and see if the "butt hill" could be a new place for hill repeats!
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