Week 2: Wed.

Just a short post to say I really liked the workout today. I find myself enjoying the interval training, which I never expected I would.

I thought about taking a rest day, but a combination of wanting to get in another workout before the heat hit and some extra anxiety I needed to run off convinced me otherwise.

Ran at the university track again--more people there than I've seen previously, probably everyone taking advantage of the last day of tolerable weather.

10 minutes slow running: v. nice, v. slow.

3 minutes stretching: ditto

5x (5 min. medium running/ 2 min. recovery walk): I enjoyed this! And I felt like a I could get a better, faster rhythm going with my feet thanks to the striding intervals in the other workouts.

Wore my Vibram five-fingers and that felt good on the spongy material of the track--so it is the pavement bugging the old bruise, I think, not the motion of running itself.

In my ongoing search for a decent running/pedometer app., I dl'd "runkeeper" onto my phone, turned it on and left it on for everything but the stretching because I was curious about how many miles I would actually run (4.4, as it turned out). I nearly jumped out of my skin when a voice announced my mileage and speed after five minutes, but otherwise I liked it. I was heartened that my average pace (averaging the running and walking, that is) was ~11 minutes/mile--better than the miserable 1k test.

Training week 2: Tuesday

So, that was a surprisingly fun workout!

I started with great crankiness and trepidation. Some magical power seems to have switched North Carolina with Maine this morning, and it was cool and crisp and dry out. What I wanted to do was run along the river, like yesterday, not thinking about or measuring anything--not run on the pavement around my house.

Plus, my feet (or at least the foot I bruised last summer falling out of headstand) seem to be telling me that the minimalist shoes I usually wear are not going to cut it if I spend this much time running on pavement (I usually run on dirt tracks/trails--but they don't have any suitable flat bits for the intervals). I've been doing some runs in my ancient, super-padded shoes, but I think I need a new pair (a third pair, along with the Vibram Five Fingers and the NB Minimus--I see NB has a new shoe with zero heel toe ratio but thicker soles).

But, I figured I'd better get the workout run in today, as it's supposed to be 100F by Friday.

15 minutes slow running: lovely, in this weather! (still listening to Bring Up the Bodies).

3 min. stretching: nice, b/c not dripping sweat!

5x50m uphill strides: surprisingly fun! I eyeballed the distance and just found a likely hill.

2 min. stretch: nice, see above.

5 x 100m strides on flat terrain: not bad. I don't think I went very fast, but I tried to focus on foot turnover and keeping a rhythm. (I think the 100m I've measured on the trail is too long--or at least it seems longer than what I did on the track. I might have to buy a pedometer watch).

10 x (1:30 slow run/:30 medium run): I was dreading doing this after all that other stuff, but it was actually kind of fun to switch strides/pace over such short times. I didn't get really tired until the end, either.

So, yay nice weather! Yay for working out in temperatures under 80F. Also, clearly intervals are easier for me than progressions. Is that true for everyone, or it just b/c I'm more of zero to sixty person than a slow build?

Monday morning

I think on Mondays I need to detox from the weekend. I couldn't bear the idea of measuring anything this morning, and ran/walked on the Eno instead. That's the trail from the parking lot near the amphitheater just north of the West Point entrance. Went for about an hour, but didn't turn on my pedometer app. Listened to Bring Up the Bodies because I really didn't want to think at all. It was lovely.

Blog Restart!

Okay: I'm thinking I'm going to revive this blog this summer as:

1. A running diary, since I'm doing an online "train for a 10k in eight weeks" course.

2. A reading diary. I've been using goodreads for a few months to log and review things I read (and want to read). My stuff already shows up on FB, but I think I'll have it show up here, too.

3. Random things on movies, tv, travel and life that are too long for FB.

We'll see.

Anyway, here is an overview of my first week trying to train for a 10k with my online course. In case you've never spoken with me about running, let me warn you, I am quite a cranky runner, but I do love it.

Running June 18-22

Note to self: When running at midday in June in North Carolina, remember to bring a handkerchief or a rag or something. Sweat in the eyes in unpleasant and a headband/wrap does not cut it.

Addendum: It gets a lot hotter than 82 degrees at noon around in here in the summer. Time to get your heat conditioning on!

So, what I usually enjoy about running is the chance to space out with my headphones on and not think too hard about how far and how fast I’m going. Monday, I just couldn’t stand the idea of drilling. I dropped son #2 off at his camp near the river, and then went for a run/hike on the paths there. ~3.1 miles in ~45 minutes. Slow, but I had to walk over the rocks and the root-tangled uphill parts. Plus, I was outside and alone!! I saw a heron and an enormous frog.

But Tuesday I couldn’t delay anymore, and I made myself do the workout. Kid-arrangements meant I couldn’t do anything until ~10:45, though, so it was pretty hot to begin with. I had to find a flat 100m, so that ruled out any of the places I usually run. I loaded a pedometer app. on my phone and tried to map it out on the little path by the creek near my house.

This was the workout:

10:00 slow warm-up run

• 2:00 stretching

• 10 x (100m skipping, recovery 50m walking/ 50m slow running)

• 3 x 7:00 running in progression, rec. 1:00 walking

It was supposed to take me 55 minutes, and it took me about 75. Since the other parts were timed, I must’ve been skipping veeerrry slowly.

I went back and forth over the same 100m section of the path skipping and then walking/running—ignoring the indulgent looks the dog walkers gave the red-faced lady hopping around. There was a guy pacing the same little section—but I realized after a while he was saying his rosary (or at least he had rosary beads in one hand and his dog’s leash in the other). I also saw a turtle crossing the path (who may’ve been going faster than me!).

The skipping wore me out, so that I could barely “progress” from slow to fast in the last intervals. I counted it as somewhat miraculous I could tack 24 minutes of running onto the end there, especially in the heat.

So: annoying. Not exactly pleasurable or relaxing while I was doing it. BUT I was completely buzzed on endorphins for the rest of the day. Seriously high.

The second workout wasn't much different than my usual run: about 35 minutes of running, with stretching in the middle somewhere. I was able to do it in one of the usual places I run.

The third one I had to do at the university track, because it's flat and marked off in meters.

Yes, that's how shadeless and sunny it was at 9:15 in the morning. Still in the low eighties at that point, and some breeze because it's a big enough space. The tiny figures on the stairs are athletic youths doing crazy drills.

First, 30 minutes of slowish running, which was fine, especially since I've started to listening to the sequel to Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies.

Then six "striding" intervals of 100m, which were surprisingly fun.

Then I was supposed to a timed 1k, but I messed it up. Even though I kind of knew that 1k was 2.5 times around this track, my pedometer ap wouldn't register that I'd done 1k until I'd gone over 3x around. So I took the latter number and was disappointed it had taken me 8:30--which is slower than my usual slow time per mile. It wasn't til I got home that I realized how much further I'd run than I should've. Sigh. Not a numbers person.

Still, I've decided I'm glad I'm doing this. I wouldn't otherwise keep up with running in this weather. And if I do run a 10k in August or Sept., I will feel like I've accomplished something this summer, which otherwise isn't looking like it'll be productive in the least.

What race shall I run? There's a garden variety 10k in Mebane over on Sept. 15, which seems like my best bet. But the boys have noticed that the Spartan Race in Leesberg, VA has kids' events, so they want me to do that. And then my friend here thinks we should all do this Zombie Run.