My running blog

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

February 28, 2006
Time: 4:00 pm Temperature: 46° Precipitation: None in the direction I chose.
Length: 30 minutes. Route: From the house to the hotel, then around the City Pier and back to the bottom of the hill. I walked up the hill.

So here is my deal. I decided that because this is a short run day, and I am running into town, (meaning no elevation change over 4 feet) I should try to pick up the pace. So when I got to milepost 1, I ran faster. Now I know you are starting to worry yourself thinking that I am going to over do it by trying to run and breathe. I figured I would reevaluate at the 1/2 mile mark. Well, not to fear, when I got to the blue mark which I am taking to mean the 1/2 mile mark, my watch said it was…ya know, I don't remember what it said. But I felt fine so I continued at the blistering pace. My only problem now being that I have never really looked for milepost 0. When I got to the yellow pole in the middle of the sidewalk, for the first time I noticed the blue paint. This can only mean one thing, that this post is milepost zero. Looking at my watch I see 3 min 57 sec. If this were my chronometer that would mean that I ran a mile in under 4 minutes. I know this is not any kind of record but you would have been pretty impressed. However, this was my timer which had been set for 15 minutes. Thus it took me just over 11 minutes to run one mile. Well, that is faster than 12 minutes. I thought that now that I was warmed up, I could run faster than that on the way back. I ran around that pier and reset my watch for the way back. When I got to milepost 1, my watch said: 3 minutes, 57 seconds. When I got to the guard station I had been running for 30 minutes so I walked home. I did not accidentally run 13 miles today.

Other things of note:
Dogs: 4
Signs of Spring: apple blossoms (5) yesterday I saw a robin.
Kleenex: None.
Thoughts: Were you expecting my blog to be about running?

Monday, February 27, 2006

February 27, 2006
Rest day.

Sunday, February 26, 2006

February 26, 2006
Lets try to run for 45 minutes today. Better than that. I did 4 miles in the rain which took me 48 minutes. I am fully aware of the fact that I am running a 12 minute mile and my distance (this, being a Sunday is my l-o-n-g run) is only as long as my short runs will have to be once I have attained Novice status.
I have not yet remembered to bring Kleenex with me. Everyday, 10 minutes into the run I think…Didn't I decide that I should make tissues part of my running outfit? And then I get done with the run, so happy to return to my slothful ways, and totally forget the need to blow my nose until 10 minutes into the next run.
I am marking my distance by the waypoints along the trail. After studying the North Olympic discovery trail website I have decided that the blue marks on the trail are actually the marathon mile markers. I didn't seem like they were all a mile apart but now I think they are. And there are also blue marks for the half mile marks. Were these there when you ran the half marathon?

Saturday, February 25, 2006

February 25, 2006
Nothin'. Not even walking to breakfast. We woke up so late that we had to drive to breakfast so Andrea could be assured her oatmeal with strawberries, blueberries and blackberries. I got the last cinnamon roll. Then we drove around doing random errands and by the time we got home I was just not in the mood to run. We did clean out the garage to try to make space for the Prius.

Friday, February 24, 2006

February 24, 2006
Nothin'

Thursday, February 23, 2006

February 23, 2006
Nothin'

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

February 22, 2006
Here I sit all sweaty in my new wicking shirt. It certainly wicks. No time to write today. Andrea wants to go somewhere.

Monday, February 20, 2006

February 20, 2006
Lets try to run for 40 minutes today.
Much better today. I actually ran for 40 minutes. I went out along the trail the other way. I ran just past mile post 3 then turned around. I have decided that mile post 3 has no correlation to how many miles it is on the trail. I probable went just over 3 miles all together.
After about 5 minutes I noticed that all the toes on my right foot were becoming numb so I stopped and loosened my shoe laces. That was pretty much the only interruptions until the route back. At the mile markers that are posted I made waypoints on Andrea's GPS unit. I did this so I could look at the route when I got home. I haven't figured out how to do that yet. I am not sure what to do tomorrow as I have thrown off my schedule. I guess it will be a rest day and Wednesday Friday will be my run days. Do you think they put that extra day in the week for just such situations? Or did they do that to screw with us?

Sunday, February 19, 2006

February 19, 2006
Lets try to run for 40 minutes today.
Well, that didn't work. We walked a mile to breakfast, and home again.

Saturday, February 18, 2006

February 18, 2006
Back from Portland.
Quick run along the trail in my new birthday suit, er, running gear. It is cold outside. 27 minutes of running, 5 minutes of walking at the end. My knee hurt at the 20 minute mark but it doesn't hurt now.

Friday, February 17, 2006

February 17, 2006
Portland. 2 hours 30 minutes of eating and 1 beer. Is that cross training?

Thursday, February 16, 2006

February 16, 2006
Portland
30 minutes on the elliptical trainer. 307 calories, 2.5 miles. Seems wrong but that is what the machine said.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

February 15, 2006
Another big mileage day for me. 200 miles to Portland, Oregon. But only 20 minutes on the elliptical trainer. It was important the establish an exercise attitude the very first night.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

February 14, 2006
Roses are red, bullets are lead…Happy Valentine's day. So I am back from my jog along the North Olympic Discovery Trail. Maybe this is a good time to recount some of the things that I have discovered:
  • It is scary to jog along the trail after dark so it is good not to think about the dead body they found last year.
  • It is nice to jog on a night with a full moon and a low tide with the surf breaking over the rocks on shore. You can almost hear it over the rustling of your hood.
  • It is difficult to jog uphill.
  • When you don't wear underwear under your spandex shorts they can ride up into your crotch causing some uncomfortable chaffing. Or so I've been told.
  • When it is dark you can't tell that the big dog running and barking at you is actually on a chain.
  • You stay warmer if you don't focus all your attention on how cold you are.
  • After you pass something and can't see it anymore, don't be surprised at how close it is when you turn around. You really haven't run that far. Hey, there's the hospital, it seems like I passed that hours ago…

So, to save time I decided not to walk. I just put on my shoes and went running out the door. Andrea didn't want me to run along the dark part of the trail so I went along the road to Francis and then down to the lighted part of the trail. It took me 15 minutes to run to the yellow pole and another 7 to run back to Francis. I walked up the hill to the crosswalk (2.5 min.) and ran home. When I got to the house I needed another 45 seconds to make a cool 30 minutes of run time, so I just ran around the block. If I just tack another 40 minutes onto that, I will be all set for March 19th. So here's a thing that makes me nervous. I can't yet run a 10 minute mile. Lets say that I run this race with an 11 minute mile…13.1 x 11 = 2 hours 24 minutes. My longest run is only going to be 90 minutes. That is not long enough. Maybe it would be if 90 minutes meant between 9 and 10 miles but for me it will mean between 7 and 8 miles. That is just over half the distance. I am not even a novice yet and I want to modify the training program.
And another thing. The running part takes long enough, do I get any training credit for the blog. It has started to take some time.

Monday, February 13, 2006

February 13, 2006
Can't a girl get a little rest for Pete's sake. Who the heck is Pete BTW. Should Pete be capitalized in this case?

Sunday, February 12, 2006

FEBRUARY 12 2006

I am trying something different. Most people blog about something that has happened. Today I am blogging before my run. Actually I am trying to catch up. It has been more than a week since I wrote and almost more than a week since I exercised. I am not good at maintaining my activities on the road – out of town. Here is what I did:

February 5 2006
Sunday is supposed to be my "long run," I tried something different. I tried "no run." That is like a long run in no characteristic whatsoever.

February 6 2006
This is a good day because you get to write 2/6/2006, which is fun. I had to go out and observe at a school. Then I left for my trip. I drove to Portland Oregon. I stayed with my friend Lucy for the first night. So, while this was a big mileage day for me, it all happened in the car.

February 7 2006
I had a meeting with my counterparts across the state. This was a great meeting. We learned how to use protocols for discussing observations with teachers and addressing difficult topics in non-threatening ways. The protocol that we didn't practice was the one that allows you to criticize all of your coworkers who are not present. However, most people were already very good at this and didn't really need to practice. Some of them even managed to criticize the person who was right there across the table. Alas, this is my training blog, not my complaining blog. So, after the meeting and the dinner meeting I went back to the hotel where they have a fitness room. I ran on the treadmill. That was fun to figure out. I ran for several 3 minute stints. I had intended to run longer but I didn't know how to work the thing. I kept pressing the wrong button and turning it off. I learned that there are many ways to turn off the treadmill. This fitness room also had an elliptical trainer which worked for longer than 3 minutes because it doesn't get automatically turned off when you slide off the back.

February 8 2006
I went to the conference where I discovered that the conference didn't start for another day. This was actually good because I was up so late exercising that I didn't get myself to the convention center until after 10:00 a.m. You could say that I cross-trained today. First, I went geocaching while carrying my conference bag, my computer, and the GPS unit. I was out and about for 45 minutes but it wasn't very strenuous work. I spent most of the time looking under shrubbery. After that, when the conference still didn't start until the next day, I went to Powell's book store. Have you heard of this bookstore? It is huge. Their literature claims that it is possibly the largest new/used bookstore in the world. I limited myself to four titles, three of which were for Andrea. This trip took all day. It was only a couple miles from the convention center but seemed like longer because I was not in good shoes. Back at the hotel I was planning on using the pool but instead I watched TV.

February 9, 2006
Liza woke me up at 6:30 a.m. with her rendition of Happy Birthday. I fell back to sleep immediately. I got to the conference in time for the Keynote which is good since I work indirectly with the president of the organization and I know he will ask me about it later. I conferenced all day and then went out to dinner with my friend Lucy and her daughter Alejandra. Before dinner we soaked in a public hot tub which was very relaxing. Then I stayed at Lucy's so no treadmill or elliptical trainer. But hey, I am 41 now. We don't want to stress the old bones.

February 10, 2006
Conferenced, drove home, met Andrea for dinner, went out to small bookstore, went to bed.

February 11, 2006
Finally, I am home with no obligations. I can get back to my training schedule. If only I could actually get up off this couch. Walking to breakfast was about as much exercise as I got.


February 12, 2006
Okay, real time training blog again. I just got back from my LONG run. 30 minutes of well-spaced spurts of jogging. 50 minutes of exercise.
Walk to the trail: 3 minutes.
run to the yellow post: 11.5 minutes
walk to the bridge: not timed
run to the guard station: 10.5 minutes
entire trip was 29 minutes so the untimed part must have been 4 minutes. I could have just walked home at this point but this is my long run day so I thought I would explore the trail in the other direction. It took me 11 minutes to walk through the water treatment plant and 7 minutes to run back. Well, 11.5 + 10.5 + 7 = 29 minutes. I decided to keep jogging until I went an even 30 minutes which meant back up the road to home. This must have been comical to see. Each of my little steps propelled me only 6 inches further than the last. Every time I looked at my watch I had cut the time in half, 30 more seconds, 15 more seconds, 8 more seconds.... I felt like I was acting out Zeno's paradox and that I would never actually get to the 30 minute mark.

On my run I had some thoughts:
Thought #1: A 13 mile run is too long to train for because even though it provides me with some nice thinking time, I can't remember any of my big epiphanies by the time I get back.
Thought #2: See, I can't even remember what that one was.
Thought #3: The importance of goals. If I ever get as far as a 13 mile run, it will only be because I trained for it. Making it a goal is the only thing that makes it possible. I am never going to accidentally run for 13 miles. I am not going to be running along and say, Hey, if I just run for 10 more miles, I will have gone 13. At this point, the idea of even being outside for that long is impossible to imagine. But remember, running a half marathon it is not actually my goal at this time. I am only training now to be able to run for 4 miles. That is comprehensible.
Thought #4: It almost seems possible to imagine 13 miles from the walking point of view. On the treadmill I noticed that I could comfortably walk 3.5 – 4 miles an hour. 13.1 ÷ 3.5 = 3 hours and 16 - 45 minutes. My jogging speed at this point fluctuates between 11 – 12.5 minutes a mile. Which works out to 2 hours, 24 – 43 minutes. I would be shaving an hour off my walk time.

Saturday, February 04, 2006

February 3, 2006
Rest. Oh yeah? What of it?

February 4, 2006
Well, I have already surpassed my own predictions. I was sure that this running thing would wear off. I was sure after one day of rest it would be out of my system. But alas, almost against my own will, I found myself out "running" again. This time I made some changes:
1. I didn't dress for the arctic.
2. I went before it was completely dark out.

Some changes that I still need to make:
1. lights for my clothes
2. a head band to keep my ears just a bit warmer
3. big ball to do stretches on when I get home
4. soft mat to do stretches on when I get home

My route did not change I still ran down along the water to the hotel and back. This route is just over two miles. My time was vastly improved. On Thursday I was running a fairly inconsistent 20 minute mile. (i.e. the entire run took me 40 minutes) Tonight I ran it in 36 minutes. That is a four minute improvement in only two days. Hmm, lets look at the numbers.
20 minutes x 13.1 miles = 262 minutes ÷ 60 = 4 hours and 22 minutes

At my "old" pace it would take me 4 hours & 20 minutes to complete this 13 mile event. Provided I don't keel over dead at the 8 mile mark.
18 minutes x 13 = 236 minutes ÷ 60 = 3 hours 56 minutes

At my "new" pace my race time is already under 4 hours.
If my improvement continues at this rate every day, and I continue to train, it will take me …16 minutes per mile the first day, 14 minutes per mile the second day, 12 minutes per mile, 10 min/mi, 8 min/mi, 6 min/mi, 4 min/mi, 2 min/mi, 0 min/mi …That would be eight training days before I could run the race instantaneously. You know, one instant I am at the start, the next instant I am at the finish. I wouldn't even have to trouble myself with that pesky "Half marathon training for the novice" crap. Which is a good thing since frankly that looked like it was going to take up quite a bit of my time.

Maybe I should look at my increase in running time not as a linear relationship but as a percentage. An increase of 4 minutes is a 10 percent decrease of the initial 40 minutes training time. Looking at is this way I will never get my time down to zero, although I will be running much faster very soon.

Andrea thinks I should call this blog "Uphill and against the wind in both directions" or "Against the wind" for short. Is it still a blog if no one reads it?

Thursday, February 02, 2006

February 2nd

February 2, 2006
I went running today. Running. Shall we define this? One of the many forms of bipedal locomotion. Some other forms include walking, skipping, jogging, skating and who know what all. I choose running to describe my activity.

The activity was preceded by the donning of appropriate clothing. I wore too much clothing but only had one change of outfit. I am sure I don't need to explain that a serious exercise regimen must be accompanied by just the right clothes. For my debut performance I chose polypropylene shirt (or whatever is supposed to wick away the sweat), fleece, cotton sweatpants (which used to be called fleece until fleece was created), Thorlo socks, well broken-in Saucony shoes. All ready to go! What? You say this outfit will just suck up the drizzle? Fine, I shall add a nylon wind breaker and change to nylon sweatpants. I did not however take off the fleece. Maybe I should talk about the weather. I realize I may have been dressed for exercising in Buffalo not Port Angeles. At least I was not cold.

Now that I have the clothes I need a running plan. Right now I am training to become a novice. Once novice status is achieved I can then train as a novice for the half marathon.

As you may know, the novice training plan for the half marathon is 1-2-1-2-3-2-3-4-3-4-5-4-6. I believe there are many ways to interpret this training plan. The way that I wanted to interpret the plan is to have the numbers stand for the miles I should run each day. This means it would only take me 13 days to complete. I would be done training in two weeks. The problem with this interpretation is that I have heard that the half marathon goes all the way up to 13 miles and my program seemed to only go to 6 miles. Even if you run 6 miles there and 6 miles back that is only 12 miles. It turns out that if you read the small print in the chart under 1-2-1-2-3-2-3-4-3-4-5-4-6, those numbers stand for weeks. 13 WEEKS! Who can keep this up for 13 weeks at a time? I guess novices. And that is why I am training to become a novice. My first week as a novice culminates with a run of 70 minutes. –yes, all at once.

Okay, I am bored of this blog. Let me just get the last few of my thoughts out. I would like lights to wear on my jacket, gloves, and a waterproof shell. And a thermometer for checking the outside temperature. As for the actual training, tonight I ran into town. One mile in, one mile out. If I had run the entire way that would be two miles. I did not run the entire way. I ran through the dark portion each way – that was three minutes (x 2) Then I ran one minute on and one minute off, which worked out to five street lights running, two street lights walking for as long as I could stand it. This worked to a total of 5 minutes of running. So 11 minutes of running all together.

I don't have time to write about how the lining of the sweatpants got wrapped around my leg due to the bizarre physics caused by the interaction of my thighs and the nylon of the sweatpants and the lining. I will address that tomorrow. Or next time I write. Maybe that will be tomorrow.

I also need a place to store my shoes so that the cat doesn't chew on the laces. I am sure these are all the little details that Novices have already worked out.

Lets look at our window of opportunity for novice training. It looks like we have 5 weeks until week 1. March 19 is our red letter day. You can see that by the red letters. Well, you would be about to if I could format this with color. The thing that makes it a red letter day is the 70 minutes written there. It doesn't seem possible.

This is the table that I was telling you about: it wasn't a table until Andrea showed my how to create it as a jpeg. You can see from the various sizes that I still need to practice. Apparently I am not yet a novice at blogging either.