Pacing

I just finished week 4 day 2 of c25k, and I feel pretty good. It's the same program as day 1, but tonight I went a little bit further (like .01 miles - a very little bit). But the better part is that I was cognizant enough of my surroundings that I was able to figure out where I started and stopped running, and was able to figure out my running pace! (Yes, I know if you have an iPhone or a Droid, the app will figure that out for you. But I have neither. Back off.) My running pace - even for the dreaded 5-minutes-at-a-time run - was about 10:00 - 10:30 mins per mile. I know that's pretty darn slow, but I feel good about it. That time is especially nice for me because it's the same pace that I ran my first 2-mile run at Basic Combat training, 11 years and 40 pounds ago. So this is good. I'll want to pick up the pace, but later. After I'm able to run 3 miles at a whack. Maybe even after I've transitioned up to 10k runs. But for now, I'm happy.

Recent Records

Just finished w4d1, and I feel freaking AWESOME! Tired, yes. My lungs feel a little raw too, but overall, I feel great! I ran 5 minutes at a time TWICE - with is the longest I've run since at least December 2004. And not counting my warm-up and cool-down, my time (including walks) was just shy of a 12-minute mile. Not speedy, but I'll take it! So this workout goes like this: 3 minute run, 90 second walk, 5 minute run, 2.5 minute walk, 3 minute run, 90 second walk, 5 minute run. Start and end with 5 minute warm-up and cool down. I already mentioned that 5 minutes is longer than I've run at a time in about 6 years. But last week, 3 minutes was my record. Which means I smashed last week's record to pieces. I'm pretty happy! My legs are tired, though, so I'm gonna go see if I can down a recovery shake: Apple juice, frozen fruit and protein powder. Yum.

Hacking My Program

So tonight I did week 3 day 2 of c25k. Sort of. It's a little weird. In comparison to the c210k app I tried, this has me running longer intervals, though for a much shorter overall time. But week 3 is a bit weird, because rather than ending the workout with a run followed by a 5 minute cool-down, week 3 ends with a 3-minute walk, followed by a 5 minute cool-down. But tonight, I took things into my own hands. And kinda succeeded. Usually, my workouts consist of me leaving the house as I press "start." The warmup is me walking to my local running trail (conveniently about 5 minutes away). When the app tells me to run or walk, I do that. When it says "halfway," I turn around and go back the way I came. Ideally, I reach the point where I started running at the same time the app tells me to start my cool-down, and I just walk home. Tonight, I didn't want to walk then walk some more, though, so my plan was to keep running for an extra 90 seconds after the "halfway" notice, then turn around. I was then going to start running at the 90 second mark of my last "walk" interval, then cool down for the regular 5 minutes. But I screwed up my plans a bit. When I finished my extra 90 seconds after the turnaround point, I thought, "gee, if I go just another 30 or 45 seconds, I can make it to that landmark," which I knew would make my total distance about 2 miles tonight, including my warm-up and cool-down. But that extra time going out had to be doubled coming back. So even though I started running with 90 seconds left on my last walking interval, I was nowhere near where I should be if I was going to make it home in the 28 minutes allotted by the app. So I kept running well into my cool-down time, leaving myself only 3 minutes for a cool-down. When I got home I was very tired, but I did make the time I hoped for. If I don't count my warm-up or (abbreviated) cool-down, my pace was a 13:20 minute mile. Not bad, considering that I walked nearly half the time. (Not great, but not bad.) I think for my next run I'll play it straight, though. Too much thinking involved tonight.

I'm Baaaaack!

So, it appears I haven't posted here in almost a year. Ouch. Let me explain some of the stuff I've tried to do since then. I tried Couch to 10k a couple of times, then got really busy and stopped. I've also hit the gym intermittently, and tried watching what I eat. All of that was pretty successful -- as long as I kept doing it. But when I got busy with work or whatever, the weight crept back up. Not all the way to all-time highs, mind you, but up just the same. But here's my latest thing. Well, a couple of them. I'm doing lose it again, but I'm doing a better job of sticking with it -- at least so far. My goal is to record everything I eat, whether I have a good day or a bad one. I'm also working through couch to 5k again, but this time with a different app. I'm only on week 3, but so far so good. I decided to go with c25k rather than 10k because, as much as I love the idea of burning 500-700 calories in a single workout, I am too likely to just decide that I don't have an hour to run. But I can always squeeze a 30-minute workout in, and I've not missed a single workout so far. (I've put a couple off one day, but I haven't had to bump any workouts into the next week.) The last thing I've been using is fitocracy. It's goal is to turn exercise - regular, non-"play" workouts into a game. You get points for each workout you complete, and these points are posted online. You can join groups. I'm a huge nerd, so I'm in the Browncoats and Dr. Who groups, as well as Couch to 5k. Groups organize different challenges to keep you motivated, you earn achievements and complete quests and level up, like you would in a standard role-playing game. I've been on about a week and a half, and I've been enjoying it. A couple of times I thought to blow off a workout, but then I remembered my Fitocracy points, and went out anyway. So the silly little point system seems to be working for me. So that's it. That's what I'm doing to hack my gut right now. Anyone else have any great ideas?

Week 3 Day 1

Today was 1:30 run, 3:30 walks, repeated 10 times for a total of 56:30 total run time. I got home about 1:30 early, though. I guess my out-and-back was almost completely uphill going out and downhill coming back. But I still ran rather slowly. My estimated run speed was about a 10 minute mile. That's OK, though, because my heart rate was much lower than it was at the end of my intervals last week (about 160 vs. 180). So on Wednesday, I'll try to pick up the pace on my runs a bit. I'm only supposed to go for about 45 minutes then, so I think I can handle a faster pace.

Week 2 Day 3

I actually managed to run 3 days this week. Today was 1 minute running and 4 minutes walking. Total time, including warm-up, cool-down and about 800m (where my workout ended but I wasn't home yet was about 50 mins. For those of you keeping track at home, that's an average 14:52 mile. My run times were at about an 8:20 mile, which means that I ran at a pace that would allow me to pass the Army's 2-mile run.

If I were allowed to break the running up into 1-minute segments with 4-minute rests between each one.

And if my 2-mile run were only 1 mile long.

I think I kinda suck. At least compared to my 10-year-younger self.

Next week: 90-second runs! Woohoo!

I'm Back...

So it's been... what? Eight months? Oops. I'm sure I had all kinds of good reasons/excuses to stop, but I don't even remember what they were.

But now, I'm starting over again.

Last week I bought the Couch to 10k app. Why jump straight to 10k? Well, I'm not sure. I think part of it is the fact that I really, REALLY need more than 30 minutes of exercise, especially if much of that is walking (as it is now, and will be for at leas a couple more weeks). Plus, I'm in this thing right now where I'm finding a huge lack of self-control, at least when it comes to food. So I need to counteract that in a big way.

Today I completed week 2 day 1, which entails 5 minutes of warm-up and cool-down surrounding 9 sets of 1 minute of running and 4 minutes of walking (with an extra 1 minute run thrown in right before the cool-down). The grand total was 51 minutes during which time I ran 3.48 miles. Not super speedy, I know, but at least I got out, right?

Motivation

I've missed a couple of weeks now. I have some pretty good reasons, I think. I've been working a lot of extra hours at work, and have also been spending a lot of time at church. When I'm home, I feel like my time is not my own, it belongs to my family - at least until the baby goes to bed. At that point, I have just a few minutes (it seems) to have some "me" time before I need to go to bed, if I'm going to wake up and get to work early.

Today, however, I got a bit more motivation, in the form of a doctor's appointment. The good news is that my HDL (the good cholesterol) is increased, and my triglycerides are down. My LDL (bad cholesterol) is stable, however, and my liver is still not doing terribly well. I was told that, like much of the rest of my body, my liver is fatty. Not too big of a surprise. What made things sink in, however, was when it was explained to me that fatty liver is often a precursor to liver cancer. So now, I get to fret about that, on top of heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes. Great.

But it was just the kick in the pants I needed (at least for tonight). Ideally, I will run 3-4 times each week. I will also be taking niacin every night (which will help with my LDL), and fish oil or flaxseed oil 3 times each day. I'm also going to do some research into under-the-desk bicycling equipment (basically an exercise bike, but without the seat or the handlebars) and try to get a couple of hours of that in each day while I'm at work. Ambitious? Yep. Will I be tired? Probably. But maybe I'll be able to eke out a few extra years of "daddy time" for my kids.

Howdy

I'm taking a different approach to my weight loss, but one thing Rick and I will have in common is running. My kids school is having its annual 5K for Literacy and I would like to be able to jog the whole way, which in my current state is not possible. I would like my kids to be able to run too. Tonight we'll start by walking for half an hour and jogging every few minutes.

As for weight loss, I'd talked to some nutritionists several months ago who said I am not eating -enough- to lose weight; that I need to bring my caloric intake up by 100 calories per week until I am at 2000.. which should be 500 calories less than my body ought to be using, if I hadn't killed my metabolism. Well, I am almost there. I gained 10 pounds the first month, but I haven't gained anything since then even though I'm adding more food every week. And my kids are telling me I look thinner even though the scale says I'm weighing the same. So I'm going to keep going with it. If all else fails and I don't lose a thing, it'll at least be nice to eat like a human being again. :)

So Tired

I haven't run for about a week and a half, due to an evil combination of weather, long hours at work and a cold. Today I finally felt well enough to get out, but it seems I suck more than I did a mere 10 days ago.

My 32 minutes of running and walking amounted to a mere 2.25 miles tonight - max. That's almost a half mile less than last time. And I feel much more tired tonight than I did last time, too.

So, what's going on? Is it because I'm still recovering from my head cold? Is it because I took too much time off? Is it because I wasn't really doing spectacularly well to begin with, so it was much easier for me to get worse? Maybe it has something to do with the copious amounts of Diet Coke I had to make it through the day?

It might be something else, though. I did make a conscious effort to take it easy tonight, since it's my first time out in a while. I also checked my heart rate and adjusted my effort down a lot because at the end of the first segment, my heart rate said I had reached maximum effort (according to the standard VO2 Max formula), even though I didn't feel quite as exhausted as I think I would have had I actually reached my max. Maybe my max is higher than the formula suggests it should be, and that's why I didn't feel like I was working that hard. Maybe I'm just convincing myself that I'm tired because according to the formula, I had a really hard workout.

I suppose I could clear that last question up by just having my VO2 max tested. Of course, that might be the sensible thing to do, which means I probably will never get around to doing it.

x-y ≠ -y+x ?

Did the pizza I had for dinner tonight cancel out my run, or did my run cancel out the pizza? And why is it that, even though I know it's the same thing, I really, really really want the second answer to be the correct one? The overall calorie count is the same way, but the thought of that work being undone causes marked anxiety, while the thought of guilt-free pizza is incredibly appealing.

Why?

Today's Run

I know, my entry titles are getting really old. But when most of what I have to write about essentially amounts to an exercise web log (exblog?), I start to run out of titles. I suppose I could just create random titles that have nothing to do with the entry, like this:

ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE

Today I ran 2.64 miles in exactly 32:05. I was pretty tired at the end, but I felt really good, too. I feel like I've accomplished a personal best - at least for the past 5 years. My average mile time was about 12 minutes, with my "running" miles ranging anywhere from 10 minutes to 10:30. My lungs are feeling a bit crusty now, but I don't know if that's because I pushed a bit too hard (or maybe exactly hard enough?) or if I'm getting sick, or if it's just too dry right now. My joints feel fine, and life is relatively good. My timer worked very well, but there are a few things I want to fix - possibly by actually *gasp* paying for an app.

---

So, how did that work? A bit more exciting? Maybe I'll keep this up if I actually find out that someone besides me ever looks at this space. Actually, maybe I'll do it more if I don't. Less pressure may open up my creativity...

New Run

Today's run was really weird. And kind of annoying.

Aren had to go to Cub Scouts tonight, so MB & I had the great idea that I could drop him off at the church, then I could run while he was doing scouts. Sounds great, right?

Well, I had a couple of hiccups. Of course. First, I forgot my flashlight. This wasn't a problem for the first 15 minutes of the run, but it got pretty dark pretty fast. Second, it was an unfamiliar route, so I felt like I was running a lot longer than I actually was. Third, my route was slightly downhill -- on the outbound trip. During that 1.75 miles, I descended about 141 feet. That meant, of course, my return trip - which occurred after I was already tired - gained 141 feet in altitude. (That would explain why it seemed so much more difficult, I guess.)

The final issue I had was with my new timer. My first set got screwed up because I somehow convinced myself - very near the end of my first set - that the timer had somehow restarted the run I was on. So I stopped, played with it for a bit, and restarted. It worked fine after that, which makes me think that I was just being stupid the first time, but oh well.

So that's that. Including warmup and cooldown - which I never do, but I will tonight because I'm not sure where exactly I started running (and stopped running, for that matter), my total workout was about 50 minutes, during which time I traveled 3.5 miles. At least I broke the 5k mark, even though I didn't mean to...

Update: I should have mentioned this earlier, but my legs are really, really tired today. Probably a combination of the uphill run and the fact that I'm still not quite used to running for a whole three minutes at a time. Ugh.

And I Ran...

So, despite all my goals, I only got out one time last week. So when I went out again tonight, it was not as easy as I wanted it to be. But I think I went faster than I did last Monday, so I guess that makes up for it.

I say I think, because the stopwatch app I have can be a bit touchy. So while I went through 8 cycles of 3/1 run/walk, when I reached my last cycle, I was at about 33 minutes. So switching between timers cost me about a minute, which I did not factor into my speed, because I don't know what amount of that was running or walking. My total distance was 2.56 miles, and my speed was somewhere between 10:30 and 11:10 per mile.

Maybe I'll see if I can find a new timer. Or maybe I'll just download Apple's SDK and see if I can make my own?

Level Up!

Well, it was sort of a level up, anyway. I moved up to a 3/1 walk/run scheme tonight. It wasn't terribly difficult, as far as the cardio goes, but I did find that my muscles seemed really tired, as though I had been doing squats all night instead of running. Weird.

The "sort of" part comes because my running speed was actually a bit slower than the last time I ran (which was actually last Friday - I didn't miss the ENTIRE rest of the week). I don't feel too bad about that, though, because:

a) As mentioned before, I felt less-than-exhausted at the end of the run

b) I purposefully held myself back a bit, since I was increasing my running time by 50%.
Now that I know I can do this, I'll see if I can boost my speed a bit on Wednesday.
One other thing, though. On my last couple of sets, I pushed myself a little bit more, just to see how I'd do. I finished breathing much more heavily, at 2 paces in/2 out. Just for kicks, I measured my heart rate at the end of those sets, and it was about 164-ish. I did the math for the estimated VO2 max, and it comes out to just under 90%, but it didn't feel that difficult. Maybe that's just because I only sustained it for 15-20 seconds at a time, or maybe my VO2 max heart rate is actually higher than the estimated 187. I should see if I can get that tested sometime - probably after I'm actually running for 30 minutes without taking a break. Or at least a full mile without a break. I haven't decided yet.

Today's run (yes, I actually made it out!) was not too bad, I suppose. According to my map, I ran about the same distance and speed that I did on the 28th, but I felt like I worked a bit harder tonight. Actually, that's not entirely true, I guess. There were a couple of legs where I definitely worked harder, but a couple where I slacked off a bit, as well. I guess its also possible - probable, even - that my guess at distance for the 28th was off, too. I know that night I didn't really have many landmarks that would show up on a Google Maps terrain image, but tonight I did.

And it's possible that I just ran slower.

But the point is that I did it. And I didn't hurt too much at the end, either. My knee was bothering me a bit, but not too much, by the time I got back in. The back of my leg (biceps femoralis?) did try to cramp up for a minute at the end when I was trying to stretch my other leg, but other than that, not too bad. I took 400 mg of ibuprofen about 30 minutes before the run, and some acetaminophen after. My ankles are a bit sore, but not too bad. And my knee is feeling better, too. So there we have it.

I'm not going to be able to workout tomorrow evening, other than to walk around the church a bit. (My new calling requires me to be there most of Tuesday nights.) But I'll run again on Wednesday, then again on Friday and/or Saturday, with walks on Thursday and whichever other day I don't run. I might move to 3/1 run/walk, too... we'll see.

Happy New Year!

So, what better way to ring in the new than with a lovely story about my goals causing me physical pain? I can't think of one!

I went out today, having missed both Wednesday and Thursday, due to extreme fatigue on the former and vague muscle/joint pain in and around my ankles on the latter. But today, I was determined to not miss.

And I didn't. I stuck to my scheduled run, but it was really uncomfortable at the start and again at the finish. I took a lot of Ibuprofen and Acetaminophen and I don't hurt too much now, but it still bothers me. I'm not quite sure what to do. I want to run - I need to run. I actually look forward to it, and am disappointed when my legs hurt, but I don't want to go and hurt myself so I'm out of commission. I'm guessing that since the pain is controlled with OTC analgesics (albeit at the maximum dose), it's probably nothing more than my body trying to build up strength where it's never really needed any before.

Hrmph. I guess I'll see what happens next week. BTW, I'm going to try to work out 5 times next week, though I expect at least 2 of those to be just walking or cycling. I haven't decided whether or not to move up to 3 minute runs. I'll probably stick with 2 minutes for Monday and see how it goes from there.

Feeling better

Okay, I took the rest of the week off. I could rattle off the excuses reasons I didn't run (it was cold, my ankles hurt and it was CHRISTMAS, for crying out loud!), but I wont. Except that I just did...

It's true, though. My ankles and knees really were bothering me for most of last week, and that helped nudge me into inaction. It works out, though, because on tonight's run, I felt pretty good. Even afterwards, I don't feel as tense as I did after last Monday's workout. So hooray for me. Hopefully it will last...

In other news, I got an iPod Touch for Christmas, and have been busy looking for apps that will help me in my efforts to not be such a slug. The one I want to mention tonight (because I actually used it) is Chronolite. It's a free app that allows you to set up to 4 separate timers. (The paid app allows more, and has some more flexibility, but I'll let that be for now.) So I set timer 1 for 2 minutes, timer 2 for 1 minute and timer 3 for 5 minutes (warm-up and cool-down). They worked pretty well, except that a couple of times I had a hard time resetting or starting the timers. I think that was mostly due to the fact that I have a screen guard on my iPod, and it was in an armband with a protective cover, as well, so the sensitivty was a bit low. As a result of that, I had one run and one walk session where I'm not sure how long I actually ran/walked.

The breakdown for tonight's workout: 2.36(ish) miles in 30 minutes, using 2 minutes run, 1 minute walk. Depending on walking speed, my running pace was somewhere between 8:30 and 10:45 per mile, and my average pace was around 12:45 per mile.

Hopefully, I'll be able to run 2-3 more times this week. I'm going to remain at the 2/1 pace since I missed last week entirely, and depending on how I feel, I may extend Saturday's run to 45 minutes... but we'll see.

2/1

First things first. I missed my run on Saturday. I walked out the door and to my staring point, jogged about 10 steps, and realized that my knees were screaming, "Don't you DARE!!!" So I stopped, turned around, and walked home, thus missing what should have been my last 1:30/1:30 run.

I did get out tonight, however, even though I was completely exhausted. Rather than try to make up for Saturday's run, however, I decided to plow on with my schedule, moving up to 2 minute run / 1 minute walk. My knees protested again when I started, but I thought, "Meh, I'll keep going and see what happens." Sure enough, by the time I'd been running for about 30 seconds, my knees weren't bothering me at all. (Wish I'd thought of that Saturday...) I did find myself adjusting my gait throughout the run. Every now and then I'd sense myself hitting the pavement too hard, or trying to cushion the blow too much with my toes (which seemed to bother my knees more, interestingly enough), so I'd tweak it slightly and move on. It seemed to work for me. My exertion level was on the high side of "medium" - with most run segments being 3 steps in, 2 steps out. I may decide later that this level is too low for a good workout (I haven't bothered to check my pulse yet), but for now I'm fine with it. Remember - three weeks ago, I hadn't run furher than 50 feet in almost 5 years.

I checked my numbers, and if my distance (found at USA Track and Field association) is correct, I did about 2.25 miles in my 30 minutes. Depending on how slow my walks were (between 2 and 3 miles per hour), my running pace was between 9:00 and 11:30 miles. I figure I'll get a more accurate read later on, after I've been doing this for a while. Right now, though, the focus is still on just getting out and going, rather than speed.

Ouch.

Today has been pretty busy. I worked late, then when I got home MB had to walk out the door, so I was stuck babysitting the wee one. By the time MB was home, it was nearly 8:00 - too late for a regular run, I thought. In fact, I almost bailed on today's run altogether, but I decided instead to go out for 20 minutes and work on speed a bit.

I kept up with my 90-second rotations, but I pushed myself much harder during the runs, usually getting down to two steps per inhale/exhale by the end of the segment. I felt pretty good, but only because I kept telling myself how awesome I was to keep pushing like this, even when it's tough.

Then I finished my run. I got home and my lower back was completely tensed up. I took every type of pain medication I had and laid down on the floor, but I was still really tight. I turned put the massager on my back and took a hot shower (not at the same time), and that seemed to help somewhat, but I'm still rather sore. My legs seem to have recovered (or the pain killers are working on them), but my back still hurts. I think I can feel one bunch of muscle fibers in particular that are still tight, but I don't massage my own back very well.

What I'm really worried about, though, is the possibility that I've gone and screwed up my back yet again and will have to go in for round 3 of surgery. My one hope right now is that this doesn't feel like sciatica, it's just overly tense muscles.

Suggestions?