Monday, December 20, 2010

First run in 9 days.

After the 5k on the 11th, I decided to take time off to let my foot recover.  Since I hadn't had any pain pretty much since the 5k, I decided to start back up today with a test run.  About 5 minutes in I noticed some twinges in my left foot.  Nothing serious but made me pay attention.  I noticed pain in my right foot somewhere around the 3/4 - 1 mile mark.  That was more serious.  I decided discretion was the better part of valor and headed home.  Didn't even make myself run all the way back to my start point. 

Somewhat disappointing for the first day back, especially since the new pain makes me worry I may be out for even longer.  I'll head out again tomorrow or Wednesday to try again.  May just need to walk for a week to get everything loosened up again.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Another 5k another PR

Yesterday's 5K was basically the same route as my first one in October.  I wasn't sure how it would go with the foot pain that keeps creeping back, but I decided to go for it anyway.  I wrapped my foot, dressed for cold with sun, and made my way to the race. 

Got there and got my number.  Suddenly realized that I hadn't had any water that morning, just coffee.  Luckily there was free water available so I grabbed a bottle and drank it down fast so it would have time to cycle through and started stretching.  My foot wrap wasn't comfortable at all so I pulled it off.  I should have known better than to do something new on a race day.  I figured my foot would probably hurt by the end anyway so it was more about being comfortable until the pain started.

I've finally learned to line up to the front and side of the pack so I can get around the slow folks who line up at the front.  As usual there was a group of middle school age kids out at the front, which always troubles me.  More often than not they've gotten in my way weaving through the crowd or goofing around with their friends instead of running.  I should probably start going to the very front of the pack, but I worry that I'll get in someone's way.

We had a mini parade to the actual starting line and Santa got us started.  I got to my pace and focused on keeping my speed up.  Knowing the course helped with that.  I got to the first mile mark and realized that, unlike the last time I ran that course, there was more of a pack than the last time.  I assume that's because I was moving faster than the last time I ran it.  That and the fact people were starting to walk the hills helped me keep my pace up.

Somewhere near the end of the second mile, my foot started to hurt.  It happened in the middle of an incline as well so I was not happy about that.  I contemplated walking the hill to rest my foot, but I realized all that would do was slow me down and make it harder to start running later, so I kept running.  I tried to maintain pace, but I'm not sure if I did.  I made a mistake around the two mile mark as well, I grabbed water from the water station.  It was a mistake because I've never done that before.  First attempt to sip at speed went down wrong.  I guess I'm just not coordinated enough to drink from a cup while running so in the future water during runs will be in sport bottle form.  The only reason I grabbed it was the lack of water before the run.  What I did manage to drink gave me a slight cramp so I'll have to work on that for the longer runs.

One of the great things about this course is that it's all downhill after the second mile.  At least in my head, that was going to be easier on my foot than a flat or uphill.  At least I kept telling myself that and it helped me hold my pace.  I sped up around 3 miles and soon after that I could see the clock and realized that I could beat 27:30 clock time if pushed it, so I dug down and found some more speed.

That last mile was more about finishing and holding pace through pain than anything else.  I was really happy I managed to gut through it, especially since my foot doesn't hurt at all today so there's no permanent damage. 

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Running may have been a mistake

Just today not in general.  Things started out fine.  Woke up and my foot didn't hurt when I put weight on it.  Got dressed, stretched and went out to face the subfreezing temperatures.  Warm up walk went fine.  First couple of miles went fine.  Most of my body was warmed up by then.  My hands were blocks of ice, but that's not a big deal.  The run up to that point was going great.  I told myself I should probably head back when I first felt the discomfort in my foot, but for some reason I talked myself out of it.  I think I was convincing myself that it was just my brain trying to get out of running.  So I turned to do the next leg of my run.  Still was just a little soreness during that whole time.  Never the pain I experienced last week when it started.  At least not until I finished my 3.27 miles and started my cool down.  Then it hurt every time I put weight on it.  Maybe it has something to do with the running versus the walking motion and the amount of time my weight is actually on my foot when I walk compared to when I run.  All I know is I popped Advil and got out the ice pack as soon as I got home.  Hopefully that, wrapping the foot and ankle, and resting for 72 hours will put me in shape to run on Saturday.  Then I'll just take time off and do other exercise for a while.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Another 5 days no running

I woke up last Thursday with foot pain.  Based on research, it was tendinitis.  Hurt to put weight on it, hurt to walk, but RICE and Advil helped so I was pretty sure I didn't break it.  It's mostly healed up now, though there was a twinge when I first put weight on it this morning.  I attribute that to spending all day yesterday on my feet.  I'll walk 2-3 miles tomorrow to loosen everything back up and run Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. 

The JAG app is now pending board review instead of just being under completeness review.  Kind of scary really because I'm nowhere near the weight I need to be, but I really want it to come through so I can get my law career started.  Applying for everything under the sun, but JAG just seems the be the right choice.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

New personal records

Today was supposed to be the 35 minute OHR run for Week 4.  Actually, that was supposed to be yesterday but a headache and rain made me postpone.  I'm sure part of it is knowing I've run for 35 minutes before so it didn't seem like much of a milestone.  Regardless, I was bound and determined to do it today.  I mapped out a route that would require me to maintain an 8:20 pace to finish in 35 minutes.  I did that so that I wouldn't run out of run before I ran out of time.

I made my way out into the frigid morning, 35 that felt like 26 according to weather.com.  I was tempted to run a second round on the hill loop, but since it had been almost a week and I mapped out my route with only 1 lap of it, I stuck to the planned route.  I didn't want to try to estimate my distance and screw things up. 

I realized during the hill loop that my 5 minute warnings weren't chiming.  I almost stopped to look at Interval Runner to make sure it was going, and those announcements help me with my speed, but I decided knowing my time wasn't important.  I was going for the distance no matter how long it took.  I kept running and decided to do the side street in my neighborhood before going to the main road.  It's basically flat which helps after that long climb in the first mile.

When I got to the main road, the wind hit hard.  I actually felt myself slow down.  I swear the wind changed when I got to my turn point and was in my face again back down the hill.  Then it turned again for the run back up.  Only had a tailwind on the last downhill portion before I went back into my subdivision.  I was feeling good by then and actually considered a third run up that hill, but I knew I was running short on time.  Made my way toward home, dodging the idiot woman who almost hit me at the 4 way stop.  She waited until I was running in front of her car to decide she should start moving.  Luckily, I always expect people to be idiots so I was able to dodge her.  I was tempted to get her license plate and hunt her down later, but it wasn't worth the effort.

Only pain I had was a side stitch that started around mile 2 and went away at some point.  I'm just glad I was able to run through it.  Shame no one knows what causes the pain. 

I'm pushing the next week of OHR to next week.  Wind sprints at the tennis court tomorrow morning and an attempt to do 5.25 or 6 miles on Saturday.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Slacking

Mostly on posts.  Short work weeks and going out of town are distractions from regular posting.

I did run last Wednesday and Thursday.  Wednesday was a slower than normal pace, at least slower than recently.  I guessed at total time since it was the 29 minute OHR Week 4 run.  I suppose it's entirely possible I ran it faster, but I prefer to assume I ran about a 10 minute pace.

I didn't count Thursday toward OHR because I only timed my first 1.2 miles because I wanted to run it at a fast pace.  Ran an 8:32 pace for the first mile then finished up the normal 3 mile run and went home.  I assume my pace was about the same as the run for justice.

I planned to run Saturday, but I woke up with a headache that just wouldn't go away.  It was bad enough to put me back in bed to try to sleep it off, which I never do.  Was going to make up for it today, but the little one woke up at 1am again and that threw my whole sleep schedule off so I decided to push it to tomorrow morning.  I'll run Tues, Thurs, Sat the next 2 weeks since I have a 5k on the 11th.  May throw a light Sunday run in there on the 5th just to do it.

I may try driving to a run site tomorrow morning.  It's only about a mile away and it lets me run for 2 miles before I turn and go back instead of the .4 mile turns I normally do.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

My second "race"

Yesterday was the Run for Justice 5k.  There wasn't enough parking when I got there so I had to walk about half a mile to check in.  Then back to my car to drop off my t-shirt.  I probably should have taken off the long sleeve shirt I was wearing as a base layer, but I was stupid.  Back to the start to warm up and try to meet some lawyers.  They seemed to congregate in groups by firm and not let anyone in. 

They announced the start of the race and walked us a half a mile to the line.  Wish I'd known that in advance, I would have gone over there early.  Luckily, most of the walkers, doggers, and strollers went to the back of the pack so I didn't have to dodge too many people to get to an open space to run.  I'll admit my competitive spirit kicked in at the beginning and I pushed a little hard to keep up with some folks.  Finally got control again about half a mile in and found my stride.  I picked two people to try to keep up with who seemed to be about my speed.  Unfortunately I lost one of them after the first big hill.  It was ungodly steep so I slowed at the top to recuperate a bit.  One of the people I was marking did the same, the other held pace and disappeared around a turn.  About the 1 mile mark, my legs were back so I sped back up to what felt like my desired pace.  I dropped the other person I marked, so I picked 2 more. 
The second mile was pretty calm.  I had to make sure I wasn't plodding.  One of the people I marked after the hill started to fall away about 1.5 miles in, so I had to pick another person.  I was also hot by then.  The long sleeve shirt and the wool socks were great at 7am when I was getting ready but too much after more than a mile of running in the morning sun.  Pulled my sleeves up as high as I could and kept going.  Was pretty much in mindless running mode by that point.  If I hadn't been trying to keep up with people, I probably would have slowed down. 
Mile three started with a climb.  I half expected another really steep one, but it was just a gradual uphill.  Made me glad I'd started running the hill in my neighborhood over the last two weeks.  Kept my pace pretty well and passed one of my marks.  Passed a few other people on the downhill as we came to the end.  Made myself speed up when I saw the cone for the 3 mile.  I was trying to pass two people, but one of them apparently decided to stay ahead of me.  When I saw the time was 28 minutes as I got close, I was actually disappointed since my only real goal for the run was sub 28. 

Consensus on the course was that it was hilly.  I only remember the two hills.  However, I'll listen to the people who said it was hilly.  My next 5k is the same course as my first one so that will be a better indicator of my improvement over the last few weeks.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Short run today

Today was the last run before the Saturday 5k so I decided not to run the hill.  I planned to do 3.1 miles, but either the cold weather or the fact that I was sweating under my base layer made me cut it short.  Could also have been that I started 15 minutes later than I like to.  Regardless, I cut the run to 2.5 miles.

It was a fast 2.5 too, probably because I dropped out the hill.  I was at 1.2 after 10 minutes and finished the whole thing in 22:02.  I thought I was closer to 2.3 when I finished so I was really surprised.  At that speed, I'll have 30 seconds of buffer time for the Army Physical Fitness test.  More interesting is that it will be a 27:35 5k this weekend, which is about 2.5 minutes faster than the one on Oct 9, which is a huge improvement since my goal was to shave 10 seconds off my mile times by end of November not 50. 

I really hope today wasn't an anomaly, some freak occurrence that everything was just right and I'll be lucky to get even close to that time again, mainly because the run felt really good as opposed to trudging through the miles because I had to.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Finally

Finally ran again today, 3.35 - 3.4 miles in about 32 minutes.  I wish Interval Runner tracked time after the scheduled run time passes, though now that I'm officially done with the first 3 weeks of runs, the times get all goofy anyway. 

First mile was the hill again.  I hit the ten minute mark at about 1.06 or 1.07 miles, which is about .05 miles faster than last week.  Not a significant improvement, but I'll take it.  And I didn't feel like my legs were going to fall off or catch fire like last week, so that's an even better indicator that the hill run is beneficial.

Got done with the hill and went through the normal run.  The 5 minute warnings on the ipod are pretty good for reminding me to focus on speed and stride, but I still feel like I'm slowing down almost right after I speed up.  Of course, a minute of running faster then going back to 6mph isn't a bad thing so I suppose I shouldn't worry about it too much.  I would be happy just plodding along if it weren't for the time limit on the JAG run.  I really need to get out for the run as fast as I can 2 miler soon to get the worry out of my head. 

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Oops

Ran .33 miles less than I should have.  I should have known based on my time that I wasn't at 3 miles, but for some reason my brain said that when I was mapping out routes, the one I was about to finish was 3.0x miles.  Instead I did 2.67 miles in 25.5 minutes, not a bad time overall.  I'll take that pace when I'm running my next 5k.

I ran the hill loop again today and felt like I was going faster than Tuesday, but I hit the 10 minute point at the exact same spot so either I have no concept of speed or I slowed down at some point without realizing it.  I kind of assume I slowed down when the ginormous wrecker started coming down the street and wasn't paying attention whatsoever as he weaved through the neighborhood.  Or when I ran by the guy who looked at me like I was crazy for running in shorts and a t-shirt when he had on 18 layers of clothes.

First 10 minutes was 1.02 miles.  That means I ran 1.65 miles in 15 minutes or so, which is closer to the speed I need for the Army.  Didn't feel like I was putting much effort into that part of the run.  I'm sure I could have done the hill loop again, but I have a plan and I'm sticking to it. 

Tomorrow or Saturday I'm doing the 2 mile "sprint" for military time.  For the test, you run on a flat track, or so I hear, so my slightly hilly route might not be ideal, but I don't feel like driving to the closest track.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Two runs this week

I use that term loosely for Sunday.  That was supposed to be my I'm going to run until my legs fall off day.  Unfortunately, they fell off after about 5 minutes running on uneven grass and dirt.  I was going to run on the road, but the third guy who blew past me at 55+ while almost hitting me with his side mirror changed my mind.  Just glad it was the middle of the day so that I was visible.  Moved into the grassy and every foot fall felt funny (bonus points for alliteration).  I couldn't get a rhythm going and generally the run felt weird.  So I turned and walked back to my normal route.  My shins were killing me as I started to run again so I gave up.  I did some intervals as I proceeded to go home to sulk.  Shouldn't really surprise me that the drivers weren't particularly polite since this is the same area where people throw stuff at cyclists on the road.  Still, I expected at least some consideration.

Today was a much better run.  Added in the "big hill" I ran as a test before the 5k.  My goal is to be able to run three laps through that neighborhood by the first week of Christmas.  I don't think it will be a problem.  It was significantly easier to do today than it was a month ago.

Got done with the first mile in just short of 10 minutes.  Since that included the new hill, I was okay with that time.  Unfortunately, I carried that pace through the rest of my run instead of speeding up once it flattened out again.  I think my brain shut down once I got through the 10 minute point because I don't remember hearing the 5 minute announcements that I use to remind me to check my speed.  At least not until I got back into the neighborhood and was trying to decide which road to take at the intersection, then my brain turned back on and I heard the 5 minute warning when I was about halfway down the street I chose.  Was trying to get back to my street before time ran out, but missed it by about .05 miles.  I ran another quarter mile after the 30 minute timer went off and it took about 2 minutes.  Have to guess on time based on the song playing at the end of the run.  Also, not 100% sure of where I stopped running, so I'm basing it on where I normally stop running. 

After a coupe myeh weeks on the road, this one was pretty good.  I think I need to sign up for some more races soon to keep the motivation up.  Or see some weight loss again since I've plateaued over the last few weeks. 

Friday, November 5, 2010

I've been slack

Only ran 1.6 miles yesterday because it started to rain on me.  Of course, I ran it in 14 minutes flat so that's pretty awesome.  I was a bit worried right at the beginning of the run because I thought I felt something pull right when I started.  That was not at all comfortable so I briefly contemplated stopping the run and walking to stretch it out.  It loosened back up after another minute of jogging so I didn't worry about it.  When I got to the main road, the rain started in earnest.  I honestly think it changed directions to come rain on me because there was nothing on radar when I looked before I left the house. 

I'm not sure if the rain sped me up, the fact that I switched my time reminders to 5 minutes instead of 10, or something else, but I'm pretty happy with that speed.  Hopefully I'll be able to get it down from 8:48 to 8:30 and then maintain it for a full 10k. 

Today my wife says I turned off my alarm, but I think I forgot to set it.  So I'll have to get up earlier than planned tomorrow to get a run in before all the other stuff I have to do.  My goal is 3.5 miles in 30 minutes.  That's almost right in the middle of yesterday's pace and an 8:30 pace.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

A "fast" 2.8 miles

Since I went back to OHR instead of going on my own plan, I'm still on 30 minute runs.  I cut about 4 minutes off that today because of wind and other distractions.  Still managed 2.8x miles in 26 minutes so I'm pretty happy with that pace.  Proves to me, once again, that I can hold a faster pace than I have been if I just go out and tell myself to speed up.  Changing the little computerized voice in Interval Runner to every 5 minutes seems to help with that.  My brain is tuned into it now so when I hear it, I know to speed up if I'm plodding.  When it was every 10, I wasn't making myself up my pace on the announcements.

My weight finally went down a bit again.  I plateaued last week and was a little worried.  Of course, I went into my food log for last week and it was noticeably empty.  Apparently I stopped tracking my meals and runs after Monday.  I can only assume the stress of Bar results distracted me.  I'm back to it starting today.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Two days two runs

To get myself back on schedule, I ran yesterday and today.  Yesterday was miserable.  It was 70 at 6am and 97% humidity.  I swear I could feel the water collecting in my lungs.  Made it tough to run in it.  Ended up cutting things short at 25 minutes because of it.  I was actually short of the 10 minute mile pace too, probably because the extra effort of swimming and running at the same time.  I did put an extra climb into my run without killing myself, so that's good.

Today was a completely different story.  It was 48 and no noticeable humidity.  Lost feeling in my fingers again.  Probably time for a pair of cheap wool gloves for the morning.  Beyond that, the run was awesome.  I've noticed recently that my first mile is usually faster than 6mph and then I slow down for the rest of the run.  Today I wanted to see if I could keep that pace up for the whole run, or at least the second mile.  I caught myself slowing a couple times and made myself speed up again.  Based on Daily Mile and memory since the GPS in my iPod never seems to work right, my first ten minutes was 1.06 miles.  Second 10 was 1.03 or so.  Last ten was 1.11.  If I can maintain that 3rd mile pace for 2 miles, I've got my Army pace in the bag.  If I can hold that pace for 3.1 miles, I'm looking at a 28 minute 5K. 

I've been wondering recently if the fact that my current route has several points that I basically come to a complete stop and reverse course, or at least slow down to turn.  I'm assuming that could make the difference of about 5 - 10 seconds compared to running on a track or a big loop.  Something that I'm not running back over the exact same ground two or three times to get miles.  I suppose I could go use the track at the high school to get accurate times, but running on a track is boring.

Next week I return to my attempts to get a 35 mile run in.  Screwed it up this week.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Finally running again

Though today was closer to swimming.  It was 70 degrees and 86% humidity.  I haven't run in temperatures higher than 50 in a couple weeks so it threw me off for a second.

Shortened my warm up walk a bit to see how I did.  Not really a good day to test something like that since conditions were so unusual for the time of year.  It's possible my body warmed up faster than it will next week when some of the mornings are supposed to be in the 30s.  Anyway, useless conjecture at this point.

That minute of walking I skipped didn't really make any difference today.  At least not as much as the fact that I've been basically sedentary for almost a week.  Managed to do my first mile faster than 10 minutes.  Not much faster, but I was pretty happy about it.  I did let myself slow since my goal was 35 minutes and with that much time off I was worried that I'd blow up early.  At least that's what I tell myself.  It's entirely possible I was just being lazy.  Regardless, it's what I did. 

Rest of the run blurs now.  I couldn't hear the voice telling me how long I'd been running so I was guessing based on the iPod getting suddenly quieter then louder.  That's not the most reliable method apparently because at one point I had absolutely no clue how many times that had happened.  I guessed I was close based on the route I'd taken to that point and decided I'd stop at a particular point on the way back that gave me a little time to cool down, regardless of actual time.  Unfortunately, I was about 1.5 minutes short of my 35 minute goal.  I don't remember now where I stopped so it was either 3.15 or 3.25 miles total.  That tells me I slowed down too much after the first mile.  The problem is I don't realize I slow down when I'm doing it.  I think I'll have to create my own workouts in interval runner and put in some announcements to speed up. 

In all, it felt good to be back out there.  I didn't realize I missed running when I was taking my unintended break.  Same thing used to happen when I rode my bike a lot.  When I didn't ride for an extended period, the first ride back out would make me wonder why I didn't go out every day.  Not sure how I can flip the switch in my brain that makes me miss running and forces me out the door. 

Tomorrow I go out again.  I am going to map out a route that I know is 3.5 miles so that I have keep the pace up to complete it in the 35 minutes.  I may add some Fartlek in as well, just so I know I'm not plodding along.  I'll save plodding for the long Saturday runs I plan to start doing once I get through my build up to one hour and beyond.  I'm also going to start tracking my runs again.  I'm using Daily Mile this time since the Runkeeper and SportyPal apps never seemed to work right.  Too pad there's no iPod app for the site, at least that I can find...

Monday, October 25, 2010

Five days since last run

Between oversleeping last Friday and an out of town trip, I haven't been out for a run since my last post.  I didn't feel bad about it until I stepped on the scale and it hadn't moved.  Part of the blame for that is the trip and my eating habits on the road and at my destination.  Part of it is me staying up too late.  Part of it is just me being lazy.  I'm going to run a double again this week to get back on track.  Not sure if it will be tomorrow and Wednesday or Thursday and Friday.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Day X of whatever this new plan is

Today I discovered that Interval runner lets me create my own work outs.  This is perfect if I decide to follow my own plan instead of OHR.  Only problem is that I don't see a way to set up notifications every 10 minutes so I only get the halfway notification right now.  I suppose I could just make it separate 10 minute runs.

Today's run was good.  I added some 200 yard "sprints" at the 3/4 mile marks just to make myself go a little faster.  Did over 3 miles in 30 minutes.  My body definitely knows how much running I'm scheduled to do on a particular day, because as soon as that voice said 30 minutes, my legs switched to walk mode.  My breathing was easy, and I didn't feel drained so I'm pretty sure a longer run won't be a problem.

My biggest fear right now is stagnating.  I have to push myself to break that nice easy jog pace I normally have.  The 30 minute morning run has become easy.  While a 3 mile run 3 or 4 days a week would be great, I'm worried that if it becomes too routing, it will be easier to stop running because it's not something fun or challenging anymore.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Playlists complete

I've decided to try my idea for increasing my time instead of following OHR so I made my playlists for 35, 40 and 45 minute runs.  It will be nice to run to real music again.  I'm not sure if I'm going to start the 35 minute runs tomorrow or next week.  Kind of makes since to wait until the beginning of the week to start something new and just do 30 minute runs for the rest of the week.  See how I feel in the morning.

Distractions

It's amazing how much havoc a 20 pound baby can wreak.  He was screaming at 2am, finally got him back in bed about 2:30am.  Took me another 30 - 45 minutes, I think, to go back to sleep.  I had planned to go on a fast walk this morning or a 1k sprint.  Instead I stayed in bed. 

I am amused by the fact that my current weight loss is more than my son weighs.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Yes I did finish

Was too busy to post yesterday but I did finish my combo Week 9 of Cto5K and Week 1 of OHR.  I'm still kicking around ideas about continuing to run.  Not sure if I want to follow OHR or just start adding time to my runs every week on my own.  If I add 5 minutes a week, or every other week, I can get to the same point in the same amount of time or stop at the mileage I decide it correct. 

It was a basically uneventful run yesterday.  Today's run to start Week 2 of OHR was much better.  Felt really good.  Hit just under my 5k race pace.  I think it may be because I was running in the dark instead of yesterday's bright sunlight.  Probably also helped that the teething baby slept through the night.  Only problem today was cold fingers.  

At the end of the Couch to 5K program, I'm down 22.5 pounds from my estimated starting weight.  I'm going to have to buy a new belt for my work pants soon because the one I got in April is on the last notch.  I was really amazed that my weight went down at all today since I wasn't tracking calories very well last week.  I actually re-weighed myself a couple minutes later to be sure and it was lower than the original value so I did it two more times and weighed the lower amount on those two as well. 

Saturday, October 16, 2010

I'll finish tomorrow

Teething baby screaming at 12:30am.  By the time I got him settled, it was after 1am.  Then he was back up at 7:45am.  My body just wasn't ready for anything strenuous.  Threw off the schedule I had planned, but I was pretty sure that wasn't going to work anyway.  I'm going to finish D3 tomorrow.  I'll do a double run and be on schedule for the 4 of 7 I was planning.  I'm going to start doing a fast 2 miles on Saturdays.  I want to see if I can do my 2 miles in 18 minutes or less yet.

I've been worried that the motivation is done now that I've done a 5k and the program is over.  I should probably schedule a 10k soon to keep me motivated, but I can't find one near me.  Not sure scheduling a 5k would be enough.

Friday, October 15, 2010

W9D3 postponed

Recent events made it impossible, or at least very difficult, for me to get out and run today.  I'm postponing the run until tomorrow.  Also trying to decide if I want to do the every other day schedule or do MWF for OHR and then a short run for speed on Saturday or Sunday.  Would end up doing more running overall and it's a set schedule again.  I'm still going back and forth on the alternate day running.  Yes it's a set schedule, but it's not the same days every week.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

One day left

Slacked and didn't post about yesterday's run.  I assume it's because the run hurt.  Unfortunately I don't know if it's because I skipped the pre-run pain meds or if it's the schedule change.  Could be a combination of the two.  I'll take the meds again tomorrow and see what happens.  If I don't hurt, I'll have my answer.  Of course, masking the pain with Tylenol probably isn't the best solution.

Run for Day 2 was a little slower than Day 1 because of the leg pain.  I was just short of 2 miles at the 20 minute mark.  I have no idea what my total time was because I didn't hear the Interval Run voice tell me it was time to stop.  I ran to the point I know is 3.1x miles and stopped.  Never really hit a runner's high.  My leg did stop hurting for a bit so I was able to space out some.  Woke up today and my leg was killing me.  Not sure if it's run related or not.  Decided to take the morning off because of it, especially since I'm doing some semi-strenuous exercise tonight. 

I'm glad I chose to overlap the two programs.  Even though I planned to start the OHR anyway, I kind of get the feeling I would have convinced myself to take some additional time off between the two which then would have snowballed into me starting over.  Even with my goal of JAG, I think scheduling a 5k a month until I'm up to a 10k is probably going to be useful in keeping me motivated.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Week 9 Day 1 / One Hour Runner

Yesterday was the combo beginning of my last week of Cto5k and first week of OHR.  Early on in the run, I felt like I was really going fast.  I can't remember if I slowed down a little to save my legs or not.  When I hit what had been the halfway point of the Week 8 runs, I still hadn't heard the halfway voice so I assumed I was flying.  Since most of my week 8 runs ended up being 30 minutes anyway, I forgot that the halfway announcement for week 8 was at 13.5 minutes not 15.  When the halfway announcement finally did pop up, I was about 1.5 miles into the run.  It's hard to be exact since none of the GPS apps for my iPod seem to work right and gmap-pedometer is manual and it's hard to be exact.  Regardless, I didn't slow down at halfway even though I thought I was hauling butt.  When the 30 minute announcement came in, I chose to stop running.  It was right at 3 miles, give or take. 

Beginning of the run, the back of my thigh was stiff.  Still no idea why because I've never had muscle stiffness in my thighs, just my calves.  Normally the stiffness in anything goes away within 1/4 mile so I didn't think about it.  It stuck around until the mile mark for some reason.  No problems with it after that, but it did make me wonder if the run schedule was the problem.  I had to tell myself 3 runs in 5 days is normal for me and it's tomorrow's run that will be the real test of the new schedule.  That will be 4 runs in 8 days.

In the "tale of the tape" my weight didn't go down this week even though I kept my calories under the goal amount almost every day.  There were some high fat and high sodium meals in there though so that could be all it was.  More importantly, I tightened my belt another notch today without realizing it.  Hopefully when I get on the scale next week, my weight will have gone down.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

First 5k complete

Yesterday was my first 5k.  My goals were pretty basic, run the whole thing and finish in 35 minutes or less.  I knew I could run for the total time on my normal route.  The 5k route had a longer extended incline though so I wasn't sure how it would hit me, even after the run I did Thursday morning. 

Start of the race was congested.  They separated out the timed and untimed runners, but they didn't corral people based on finish time or anything like that.  I got stuck behind several people who were running a much slower pace than I wanted to.  Was even harder to get around them because of the faster runners stuck behind me moving their way up.  I finally got to the outside and found a group moving about my speed. 

About 3/4 of a mile in, I had the feeling I was moving a little faster than my normal pace, which is to be expected with the adrenaline.  However, I chose to slow down a bit because I knew I had the climb still to come and didn't want to burn out my legs and end up walking.  There was a cop stationed at the end of the first mile calling time.  I hit the line right at 9 minutes.  I made myself slow down a little more to be on the safe side since I assumed my initial pace was about 8.5 minutes which is a lot faster than I normally run. 

A lot of people started walking during that second mile, especially once the incline started.  I kept chugging along and passed quite a few people who had burned out on the first mile.  The hill wasn't particularly steep, but it was bad enough that I was glad I'd slowed down.  I hit mile 2 at 19 something.  Three things went through my head at that point.  First I knew that based on the previous year people had already finished.  Second I could probably walk the last mile and still beat my goal time.  Third was that if I could just hold my current pace, I'd beat 30 minutes.  I used that to motivate me to keep running. 

I don't really remember much about mile 3.  There was some more uphill and then a blessed downhill for about half a mile.  I didn't take as much advantage of that downhill as well as I should have especially with the end of race climb coming.  Again, I was more worried about getting to the end and losing steam.  I hit 3 miles and they yelled out 29 something.  I sped up, but not quite enough.  I hit the line at 30:07 clock time which translated to 30:03 line to line based on the timing thing on my shoe.  That translates to 9:42 per mile.  I was 111/252 and 16th in my age group.  The top two finishers were also in my age group.  If I'd kicked a little harder in the end, I might have been 14th. 

All in all, I feel like I did really well.  I was significantly faster than my normal speed when I run at home.  I know now that I can maintain a faster pace for 30 minutes without burning out.  I also know that I can run 3.1 miles on Thursday and again on Saturday.  Tomorrow I start Week 9 of Cto5K and Week 1 of One Hour Runner.  I decided to follow the OHR program at least through Week 7's 45 minute run.  At that point I'll decide if I should focus on getting 5 miles in 45 minutes or continue to the end of OHR.  But that decision is almost 2 months away.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Last run before the 5k

This weekend is my first 5k.  I picked a route for today's run to try to mimic some of the 5k route as best I could.  The 5k has about 100 feet of climbing between 1.25 miles and 2.25 miles.  My normal route doesn't have that much elevation change, so I decided to run a 1.14 mile loop through the neighborhood next to mine.  That climbs almost 100 feet in the span of 1k.  Figured if I could do that, I'd be fine on Saturday.  I will start by saying that I did run it.  I will continue by saying boy did it ever suck.  I think my legs just weren't warmed up enough to do the hill yet.  I think that walking that area will be my off day exercise, at least until I develop the climbing muscles a little bit more. 

Once I got through the first km, the route is a pretty nice downhill for half a mile then back up for half a mile.  That particular climb is very gradual and is part of my normal route.  I vaguely remember hearing the voice telling me I was at the 15 minute mark, but my brain was already off on hiatus, which was nice.  I don't really remember the next mile and change.  Was brought back to reality by a garbage truck running a stop sign and bouncing over the curb about 10 feet in front of me.  Glad my subconscious mind was paying attention because I'm pretty sure the driver didn't see me and was not going to give me enough space.  So I was conscious again for about the last km, but I was running easy and could have kept going.  I even contemplated pushing up my speed and adding some distance, but I decided not to last minute.  Last thing I need is to push it too much and risk injury, or even just soreness, two days before my first race.  I was already planning to run 2-3 minutes past the Week 8 time as it was.  That 2-3 minutes became 4 or 5. 

I'm planning to count Week 9 of C25K as week one of One Hour Runner since they're identical.  I was contemplating going straight into Week 4 of OHR, but since I'm planning to change my run schedule to every other day instead of 3 days a week, it seemed like a good idea to do the 30 minute runs while I get used to the new schedule.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Walking days

Today I walked instead of running.  Main reasons were lack of sleep and arm pain from my flu shot.  I'm not sure if running would have made the pain worse or not, but since I could barely lift my arm, I decided to give it a day.

I am more sore after walking than I normally am after running.  I'm not sure if it's the 40 degree temperature, the lack of pre-exercise stretching, or just the fact that I was using the muscles in a different way.  All I do know is my calves were burning and that doesn't normally happen. 

Monday, October 4, 2010

Week 8

Today was my best run in two weeks.  Not sure what was different other than everything just seemed to click.  I was definitely surprised since I expected it to be a really bad run since I only slept about 4 hours last night.  Maybe it was that I was well hydrated and had a fairly healthy dinner.  Maybe it was the ice cream for dessert.  Maybe it was my weight being 2 pounds lower.  Shoot, could have been the 47 degree temperature.  Don't really care, all I know is that the run felt good.

Ran in the jacket again today.  I discovered that leaving the sleeves loose instead of tightening them around my wrist increased the air flow so it didn't get as hot.  All I had to do was unzip it a little near the end of the run to keep from feeling uncomfortably sweaty.  I think I prefer the jacket for cold running than the long sleeve cycling undershirt I wore last week because it is a little more flexible with zippers etc.  This is good since I don't feel like spending $30 a pop for long sleeve running shirts.  I suppose I could get some normal long sleeve t-shirts, but I like the running/cycling shirt material.

Finally, the run report.  I actually started off at a fairly good clip, I think because I wanted to get the blood pumping due to the cold.  My stride felt more like I was jogging than plodding or shuffling.  Again, just seemed to flow.  I didn't get around to making a playlist or my own podcast for week 8, so I don't know what my time was at the 1 mile mark.  At the halfway point, I was 1.4 to 1.5 miles, so maybe a little faster than 6mph.  Since none of the GPS programs for my iPod seem to work properly, I stopped using them.  Based on memory and gmap-pedometer, I was just short of 2.8 miles at the end of the podcast for the run portion.  I tacked on a little more and hit 2.9 miles total when I was to my cool down point.  Wednesday I'm going to tack on enough to make sure I do at least 3 miles.  I've mapped out several routes between 3 and 3.5 miles, just have to pick one. 

The best thing about today was getting to the cool down with plenty of juice left in the tank even after I sped up for that last .2 miles.  And realizing that if I add .2 more, I'm running a 5k in about 30 minutes.  It's amazing that in just 7 weeks I've gone from skipping the last 1 minute interval of 8 to running for 27+ minutes.

Walktober

My company started an exercise competition called Walktober.  The goal is for everyone to record at least 20 days during the month that they exercise at least 30 minutes.  Of course, I signed up for it.  I assume walking on my off days won't hurt me for running and will only help the weight loss.

Speaking of weight loss, my official Monday weigh in was down 2 more pounds.  Considering I had a couple days last week that I went over my maintenance calories not just my weight loss calories, that's a pretty good number in my book.  The two pound a week average doesn't get me to Army weight as fast as I'd like, but it's still a good rate and will have me ready by the March 1 application deadline if I have to reapply.

Friday, October 1, 2010

End of 7

Not a good run today.  I wore my cold weather gear and didn't need it, so I felt overheated at one point.  I didn't stretch well before the run, which ended up being more mental than physical.  I was thinking about injuries and my history of back pain from running.  When I realized my back wasn't going to hurt, I was less worried.

At some point, I got a cramp on my right side.  I haven't had a cramp since week 2 or 3, so I was a little surprised.  It was around mile 1 and my brain started telling me to bail out and run tomorrow instead.  I know not to listen to my brain when it comes to exercise, so I pushed through.  I think the cramp went away about a half mile later.  I really don't remember at this point.

Distance was about .2 miles shorter than Wednesday.  I am a little disappointed in my speed today, but I take some solace in the fact that I still ran the full 25 minutes, even if it was slow.  I need to do something to work on my stride and rhythm.  I think that's what was killing me today.  I felt like I was shuffling instead of jogging.  Half the time I was wondering if my feet actually left the ground.  And, as usual, my attempts to make myself stretch my stride out a bit and run would fade as soon as I stopped focusing on it.

Monday I'm going to try interval runner instead of the Ullrey podcasts.  I think having my own music playing instead of the techno will make a huge difference.  I expect to catch myself running down the road singing along, and I'm okay with that.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Week 7 Day 2

Honestly, a pretty easy day.  Other than losing feeling in my hands due to the colder temperature, not much happened on the run.  Maintained my 6mph pace without even trying.  I know I need to try to push myself to go a little faster because that pace is pretty easy, but it's what my body does when I'm not paying attention and just out there going.  Considering I couldn't have run a 10 minute mile 7 weeks ago, I'll be happy with it for a while, at least until I need to start running times for real.  I think if the weight keeps dropping off like it has been the last 3 weeks, my times will start to get faster just because I won't be hauling around as much weight.  We'll see.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Week 7 begins

Morning did not start well.  Loud baby at 2am and 5am threw my sleep cycle off.  Didn't help that I was also planning to get up 15 minutes earlier since my runs will be getting longer and longer over the next few months.  Still, I managed to stumble downstairs and get ready.  Monday weigh in was about 2.5 pounds lower than last week.  Still haven't gotten around to measuring neck, waist, etc and calculating body fat %. 

Checked the weather and the radar showed clouds all around me so I grabbed the rain jacket.  That rain jacket was ungodly hot by the end of my run and completely useless since the rain apparently went around me instead of over me.  I had it almost completely unzipped, which didn't really help with the heat and caused annoying flopping when I ran.  I thought the jacket was hurting my pace and slowing me down, but I maintained 6mph today so if it was, that's a really good thing for me.

Definitely had some mental/motivational issues during the run.  At first I thought it was because my iPod volume was too low so I couldn't hear the podcast over the traffic.  Getting the volume back up didn't help though so I think it might just be the lack of sleep and the extra heat from the jacket.  Definitely not a smooth run today.  But I muscled through it all at the pace I need for a 31 minute 5k.  Hopefully Wednesday will be better.  I'm contemplating switching out to use interval runner or my own podcast that day so I can put in more time cues.  I wanted at least a 5 minute warning at the end instead of the halfway and 1 minute.  Would be nice to run to my own music too.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Six weeks of running complete

I have completed what I consider the training portion of the Couch to 5k program.  All of the interval running days are behind me.  Now it's all about extending my total run time.  Back on Day 1, these long runs seemed impossible.  Today, they are more of a challenge to keep a fast pace than a challenge to keep moving.

My main goal today was to keep about a 9 minute pace for the first mile.  I wanted to finish it before the 10 minute mark on the podcast.  After that, my pace didn't really matter as long as I was jogging.  Ended up with a 10 minute mile pace overall.  I'm not sure if I could have continued the faster pace for the whole 25, but that's what next week is for.

I changed up my route today, sort of.  Instead of going back into my neighborhood after the first 1.2 miles, I turned around and went back to the main road again.  That was most of my second mile of running.  No memory of the time by then.  When I was back at the entrance to my subdivision, I heard the Day 1 voice for the last run so I knew I had about 6 minutes left.  This meant I needed to detour a bit because it was only about 2 minutes to my end point for the cool down.  So I made a quick left turn to add on about 4/10 of a mile and then made my way back to the end of my route.  The voice in my ears came on to tell me one minute left.  From prior runs, I knew that it was about 2 minutes from that intersection to my street so I decided to pick up the pace.  I didn't quite make it, but I was really close and really happy that I had the juice for that one minute "sprint" to finish off the day. 

Total run was about 2.6 miles with an insignificant amount of time tacked to the end.  It is amazing to me that 9 days ago I was celebrating the fact that I ran 1 mile without stopping.  I really hope I can pull off 3 miles in 27 minutes by the end of week 8.  That would put me at Army fitness test pace.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Off day exercise

Non-run days are supposed to be core/strength/cross training.  That is if my body cooperates.  It didn't this morning.  The alarm went off, and I nearly tossed it across the room.  Three or four snoozes later, I finally dragged my lazy butt out of bed.  Wish I'd just set the alarm for 30 more minutes instead of a bunch of snoozes.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Halfway through Week 6

Much easier run than Monday.  Better diet and a few new pre-run stretches seem to have helped with the pain.  My muscles were fairly loose by the end of the warm up and my shins didn't hurt when I started running, which they have been for a week or so.  Since the run was basically painless from the get go, that made the whole thing a lot better.  I spent some time thinking about my stride, but after about 2 minutes, my mind started to wander aimlessly.  Next thing I knew, the voice was telling me to walk.  Pretty much the same thing happened on the second 10 minute run.  Hopefully it will be that way on Friday when I do the 25 minute run.  It was so much easier to run when my brain was thinking about everything but running.

Since my run today was two 10 minute intervals, I decided that my goal was to do two sub 10 minute miles.  Based on gmap-pedometer, I managed to accomplish that goal.  Granted, I barely squeaked in under 10 for both of them, but I did it.  I wondered if I should have mapped out checkpoints for the run so I'd know if I was maintaining pace,it's probably best that I didn't.  I don't run with a watch anyway so not like I could have checked the time to see if I was maintaining the pace.  I'm not that worried about speed yet anyway, it was just a milestone for me.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Week 6 Day 1 run recap

This one will be short because all I really remember is the run was not a good one.  My first five minute run was just short of half a mile.  No idea on the other two because I have no memory of where I was in the neighborhood to put it into gmap-pedometer.  I've discovered that runkeeper is basically useless for tracking my runs and sportypal never seems to find its satellite.

My entire run my stride was short and shuffling.  Every time I told myself to fix it, I would realize I was back in the plod instead of a jog within a minute.  The only time I maintained it was when I forced myself to speed up on the second 5 minute run.  That one wasn't as bad as the others, probably because I was finally warmed up and starting to feel okay.  I did manage to push that one out for an additional minute to the end of the podcast for the 25 minute run. 

I know part of my problem was the podcast again.  When I realized that, unlike last week, the Day 3 run is longer than the other two days, I lost some focus.  Something in my head started saying 25 minutes is too long a run.  That's the main reason I pushed that last run through the pain.

The difference diet can make

I don't think I ate a single healthy meal all weekend.  My fat and sodium content was off the chart.  After 3 days of that, my morning run was miserable.  I was sluggish, stiff and tired.  It's a miracle my weigh in was still lower than last week.  Even more amazing was that I tightened my belt an extra notch without realizing it.  When I put my weight into My Fitness Pal, it said I should recalculate my calorie goal based on my new weight so even more motivation.  Of course, it also appears that my prior calorie goal was based on 1 pound a week of weight loss not 2 so the calorie number is 450 less than what I had there before.  Luckily most days I've been hitting that number anyway.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Vanquishing the monster

Today's run was 2.5 times longer than the prior longest scheduled run in the program.  People call it the 20 minute monster because it's such a huge difference.  The mental block of running for 20 minutes straight is huge.  I pushed my second 8 minute run to ten minutes on Wednesday just so the 20 wouldn't seem quite so long.

My mind and body started a revolt as I left for the warm up walk.  My right calf hurt for no reason, my left knee felt stiff, my shirt didn't feel right.  By the time I I finished the warm up, which I must have walked faster than usual, those things had stopped.  I started running and felt fine chugging along at a good clip.  Then the 5 minute interval ended and my brain said, "It's only been 5 minutes, you'll never get through this."  I responded by slowing my pace a little instead of powering through.  To me it was more about time than distance or speed today.  My brain quieted down a bit with the slower pace and I plodded on.  I somehow managed to tune out the voice announcing the end of 8 minutes, but I heard the one for the halfway point.  I wasn't quite as far along my route as I expected to be by then, but I didn't really care.

The second half of the run was completely different.  My legs didn't hurt, my back was fine, my breathing wasn't labored.  I was actually enjoying the run.  At this point, all the instructions from the podcast for the other runs seemed to energize me.  Every time there was a pace change for the others, I knew I was that much closer.  I even managed to pick up the pace a bit when it said I only had 4 minutes left.

When 20 minutes hit, I kept running.  I had two things going through my head, one was to run until the 21 minute mark and the other was to run all the way to my start point.  When 21 hit, I stopped running.  Not sure what happened, my legs just suddenly went to walk mode.  I was actually too surprised by this to feel like I'd accomplished something.  It took about 50-100 yards of walking before I got enough conscious control back to tell my legs they were running another .15-.2 miles.  Luckily they listened, though I'm pretty sure for a second their they were planning to tell me to piss off.

Total running distance today was about 2.2 miles in 22ish minutes.  I really was hoping to run at least 10 minute miles if not a little faster, but like I said, the time was more important than the speed.  That and the fact that I still was able to add time to the end of the 20 minute run.  I got to my stop point and did a little mini victory lap.  Walked home with a spring in my step and a smile on my face.  I'm pretty sure anyone looking out the window as I walked by thought I was crazy.  If they only knew.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Day to day differences

My plan for the off days was to do 30 minutes of strength exercises and stretching.  I had planned to do it all in the morning, but I decided that an extra 45 minutes of sleep sounded better so I decided I'd do it all after work.  I have noticed a significant difference in my energy level today.  On running days, I feel energized, for the most part, all day.  Today I'm yawning and a little listless.  It really is amazing the difference that the exercise can make in your day.  I'm actually looking forward to the day in the near future that I'm good to run more than 3 days a week.  Even if it's just the 1k jog to the end of the street and back.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Morning running

It finally occurred to me today why I like to run in the morning, other than it's easier than trying to motivate after a long day of work and traffic.  When I start my run, it's dark and the stars are out.  At the end of my run, the sky is lighter, the stars are gone and the first hints of sun are showing.  In my head, I'm running from one day to the next.  The sci-fi geek in me thinks of it as time travel I guess.

Week 5 Day 2

I was dreading today just a little bit.  Mainly because of the podcast and the fact that it announces for all three days in one podcast.  I discovered that it wasn't that big a deal though.  It really did seem like more of a way to mark my time in relation to Monday's run than something that made me think "Oh God I still have 3 minutes to go" like I thought it would. 

I timed the warm up just right so that I was at the end of my street when I started to jog.  I made my way past my normal turn into the other subdivision entrance and toward the main road.  It was pitch black.  I almost turned around to go back to my normal route because I was actually worried that some idiot would turn in too fast and hit me.  My clothing this morning probably wasn't as reflective as it could be.  There was an idiot turning, but I was out of his way in time.  I continued jogging up the street to the the next main road.  I got to the intersection and was surprised that I had to turn around to keep running.  I half assumed that my first 8 would end about that point.  Jogged back toward home wondering if I was running too fast and if that was going to kill me for the second 8.  Was relieved to hear the announcement to walk more for that reason than any need to walk.

The downhill walk was nice.  Helped me keep my brisk walk pace up so I managed to get all the way back to my subdivision just in time to start running my second 8.  I was back on the old familiar ground so I was pretty sure of exactly where I'd be at the end of 8 minutes.  I chugged up the first street and back then up the second.  Right about the time I was expecting to hear the voice tell me to walk, it wasn't.  It was telling the Day 3 people they could stop.  So I decided to push a little since I knew I only had 1 minute to go.  I heard the blessed voice telling me to stop, but I didn't.  I was going to keep running until I got back to the start point of my run.  I knew it was about 2 minutes from the prior weeks of running and that the mental boost I'd get from knowing I'd run a total of 18 minutes would make the 20 on Friday less daunting.  And I felt really good when I finished it, like I could have kept going.  I didn't realize until I got home that in addition to it being a 10 minute run, it was also about 1.1 miles.  I haven't run a continuous mile since 1992.  I'm not counting elliptical machines because that's not the same. 

Also today as I was putting on my clothes, I realized my pants fit differently.  Felt easier to get them to button.  I went and checked the mirror, and they were not as tight as they used to be.  The white from the inside of the pockets wasn't visible like it used to be.  Just a little more motivation to help me through the program.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Week 5 Day 1

This is the week everything goes wonky.  Instead of the same program every day, I've got 3 different runs.  I did briefly contemplate skipping the Day 1 program and doing Day 2 twice, but my common sense won out.  I've been doing so well following the program that it seems like a bad idea to start thinking I know better. 

I spent the first 5 minute run trying to focus on my breathing and stride.  I often feel like I shuffle when I jog instead of longer strides.  I've been trying to make myself plant, roll my foot, and push off with my ankle instead of simply lifting my foot.  To me, that seems like it would be more efficient and easier.  I know I probably over-exaggerated the motion, but I think that's better for the long term goal of training my body to run that way.  I want to get someone to "examine" my stride, but the only places I know that do that are shoe stores, and I'd feel bad going in with no intent to buy new shoes. 

Second 5 minute I added the dreaded hill.  It's a short but ungodly steep incline that I usually use as my turn around point for that leg of my run.  Today I went right up it.  Noticed I was basically running on my toes to do it.  Felt like I was parallel to the incline too.  But I got up it and still managed to get through the rest of the 5 without dying.

Last 5 minutes was pretty easy.  Prior weeks, the last run has been painful but not today.  That made me feel pretty good about my decision to stick to the program instead of pushing to Day 2.  I added in my extra runs as well, which is less than half a mile, but it's as much for me knowing I can finish the scheduled runs and still do more than anything else.

Plotted out a couple of routes for my Day 2 and Day 3 runs so I'm not just going in circles in my subdivision.  One is just shy of 2 miles and the other is .25 miles over.  If I can finish the Day 3 route in 20 minutes, I'll be incredibly happy, and completely amazed.

The curse of the scale

Had to move the scale to the basement.  I weighed myself 4 times since I bought it to watch it go down just based on time of day etc.  This morning it was because I sinned last night by eating a very large steak.  I rationalized by saying I'm taking multiple readings over time in order to get an average, but that's stupid. 

I was very quickly reminded of my ex-wife who used to weigh first thing in the morning, before and after each meal, before and after going to the bathroom, and right before bed.  She would then do some bizarre mathematical formulas to subtract for clothes, boob weight, hair weight, anything else she could subtract.

So with the scale in the basement I can return to my focus on the exercise and not on the number I'm trying to achieve, which is actually not as low as I thought so that's a bonus.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

End of week 4

Shorter run than the rest of week 4 today.  Had places to be today.  Still did 2.75 miles in 35 minutes.  The shortened route had a few additional inclines than the normal route.  Just shy of 5 mph.  Not that big a deal when I consider that I'm only running 16 of 35 - 40 minutes of the week 4 runs.  Next week will tell me a little more about my actual run times.  I kind of hope that those 8 minute runs on day 2 are closer to a mile than 2/3.  Definitely want the 20 minute run to be at least 2 miles. 

Finally bought a scale today.  Last time I weighed myself was Easter.  My weight is down 10 lbs since then.  Not sure what the differences are between the scales.  No idea if my weight went up after Easter, though I assume it probably did with my poor eating habits during BAR prep and the end of school.  All those late night meals.  It might be as much as 15 pounds of weight loss since the beginning of August.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Mid week update

Much easier than last week since I dropped the off day bike riding in favor of some basic strength training and core exercises.  Hopefully those will also make the running easier as the distances get longer.

The best thing about this week so far is my total distance with warm up and cool down is 5K.  Even though I'm still running less than half of my total work out, this feels like a huge accomplishment.  When I started this a month ago, walking 3 miles would have killed me.  Shoot, walking the 1K to the end of the street and back was bad enough.  I'm estimating that I run about 2 of the 3 miles at this point.  Can't be sure since Runkeeper doesn't seem to work properly.

Another discovery was that my breathing gets completely back to normal during the cool downs.  I was worried that I'd still be huffing and puffing with cool downs that are only half of my run times.  I haven't tried monitoring my heart rate and recovery yet since my experience with heart rate monitors is that they don't work.  I suppose I could check my pulse during the cool down, but I don't have a watch with me when I run.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

End of 3 start of 4

Week 3 ended with a whimper.  Everything hurt and I never really felt like I hit a rhythm with the run.  Didn't help I was running 2.5 hours later than usual so the sun was out and blinding me.  I think the problem was that me alternate day exercise is too similar to my running day exercise.  I thought the difference in motion between cycling and running would be enough to make the muscles work differently.  Apparently I was wrong.  I've decided my off days will be more about some simple strength and core training instead of more cardio.  At most, I'll walk 10 minutes before I do sets of push ups, sit ups and light weights.

Week 4 day 1 was a whole different story.  After 3 days off to rest and recuperate, all the minor aches were gone.  Hit that first 3 minute run with a vengeance.  The 5 minute run felt great, almost effortless really.  Second 3 minute run was almost as good.  Last 5 minutes not so much.  I think the fact that Week 4 has almost twice the running of week 3 has something to do with that.  I added an extra run on my walk home anyway, mainly to remind my body just who is in charge.  Of course, now my upper back hurts so that may not have been the smartest thing I've ever done...

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Injury report

Somehow I managed to hurt my back riding the trainer today.  I assume I was hunched over strange or stretched weird.  At least I assume it was trainer related, though I don't remember it hurting until I was almost to work.  Hopefully, it won't interfere with W3D3 tomorrow.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Exercise addiction

People keep telling me, and have for years, that when you exercise regularly, you get addicted to the feeling and keep exercising because of it.  I have never personally experienced this addiction.  Honestly, I get more pleasure from a pack of cigarettes, a 6 pack of beer, or a bowl of ice cream than I ever remember getting from exercise.  Exercise has always felt more like work than anything else.  I enjoy riding my bike, but obviously not enough to actually go out and do it since it was collecting dust until I started riding the trainer.  I enjoyed my Monday morning run, but not the same run today. 

I have to force myself to go out and do it every time.  For example, this morning I thought I'd hit a second snooze and gotten back in bed.  Turns out it was the first and I would have been fine, but for a minute, I was just thinking there'd be no harm in pushing it off a day, ignoring the fact that the long weekend is going to screw up my run schedule enough and there's no way I'm going jogging in the mountains.  Same thing happened last year when I was trying to do 10k steps.  One cold morning, one extra snooze, one day of not feeling like it and it was all over.  I'm pretty sure the only saving grace I'll have is the fact that C25K is a lot more structured than doing it on my own.  Also, my long term military goal should help some.

Mid week post

Yesterday's ride on the trainer was completely uneventful.  There's a shocker.  Granted just spinning for 30 minutes is an accomplishment, but it's also ungodly dull.  I'm going to have to start bringing my bike to work and riding nearby in the evening just so I can actually get some real miles on it before the time changes and it's too dark at night.

Today was Week 3 Day 2 and it was not nearly as impressive as Monday.  Granted the run was the same distance and, I assume, speed, but it didn't feel as good.  Had some shin pain, some knee pain, and some back pain again by the end.  I pushed the beginning of the second 3 minutes just to force my body to do it when it started to rebel against me.  I thought that might actually make me feel a little better, but it didn't.  At least I got through it instead of bailing on the last run.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Beginning of Week 3

Week 3 Day 1 of the program complete and finished with a cold no less.  According to the GPS I did about 2.31 miles so distances are still going up a little each time.  I ran everything I was supposed to run and then added some more to it just to see if I could so I ended up with a bout a mile of actual running this time.  Back didn't hurt at all, that I remember.  Knees hurt a little when I woke up from my sick day nap, but that could be because I didn't eat before I went back to bed. 

Last week was the first week of calorie tracking as well.  If I eat 2000 calories a day, that's the pound a week weight loss.  I'm trying to keep it under 1900 except for that weekly sin.  Weighing the meats, estimating everything else.  Based on the tracking, I probably lost 1.5 - 2 pounds last week.  No idea really since I don't own a scale.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Sin Night/Slack Day

Last night was sin night.  Pizza and some chocolate on the menu.  Over shot my maintenance calories by about 600.  It's no wonder I got so overweight since last night was pretty representative of a lot of meals I've eaten over the last few years.  Of course, part of the reason I ate that much was staying up until 2:30 to watch the last season of 24.  Still, after a week of 1500 - 2000 calorie days, it was nice to splurge.  In fact, it's necessary to maintain my sanity with all the other stuff I'm trying to change. 

Today is sit on couch and be lazy day.  Unless I decided to take a turn around the neighborhood tonight just to get the blood flowing.  Another thing to help maintain my sanity.

Friday, August 27, 2010

End of week 2

The latter half of the week went very well despite the beginnings of a cold.  Wednesday's week 2 day 2 was a different route than usual.  Ended up running on concrete instead of asphalt.  Not sure if that was the reason my legs hurt more or if it was the fact that the new route has a steady incline for half of the first mile of the run.  Either way, my shins were not happy with me, though the rest of me was fine.  Not nearly as much back pain as when I run my route with steeper inclines. 

Thursday my throat felt worse and my knees told me not to get out of bed.  Since it wasn't a running day, I let them win this time.  I figure I can make it up with a real bike ride on Saturday or Sunday instead of riding the crappy trainer in the stinky basement.  Plus real riding will help me build up the butt callouses. 

Friday I felt worse than Thursday but it's a run day so I'm not going to give in to the temptation to slack.  Got up, dosed my self with cold meds, pain meds and vitamins, drank my water and hit the road.  Extended the first interval by about 30 seconds into the recovery time.  Just wanted to see what would happen.  Wasn't as hard as I thought it would be so that gives me some hope for Week 3's 3 minute runs.  Total distance today was actually shorter than the rest of the week.  I attribute that to the extra 30 seconds of running and an overall faster pace.  By the time I got to the cool down walk, I was closer to home than usual so when I doubled back down the street, I didn't finish the cool down before I got back to the house.

Generally speaking, after two weeks of consistent exercise, I feel like I'm making some headway on the exercise part of my life.  I've been tracking calories online to at least get an idea of what I'm eating.  According to the fitness coach and the website, 2000 calories a day will allow me to lose a pound a week.  Most of the week, I've been well under that.  Plus I burned about  1000 calories in exercise.  I should probably go out and buy a scale, but those things are evil.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Two days two workouts

So far I have managed to stay motivated for the first two days of the week.  Yesterday was the first run in new shoes.  After about half a mile I realized that the shoes that felt almost too tight when I put them on had loosened significantly with movement, to the point that my sock ran down into my shoe.  Being a super genius, I kept going instead of fixing it.  Pretty sure loose shoe caused the thigh pain.  Could really tell a difference between the new shoes and the old ones.  A lot more cushion in the new ones.  I felt them squish as I ran which I think is probably a good thing.  Distributes the force more so it's less jarring, right?  Rocked out just over 2 miles of walk/jog.

Today was the trainer.  And by that I mean bike trainer not some professional guy hired to motivate me.  I hate riding the bike trainer.  One, there's no sense of accomplishment because you didn't go anywhere.  Two, you can't get a virtual representation of going anywhere because bike computers work with the front wheel not the rear wheel.  I've been told putting a bike computer on the rear wheel doesn't work.  Three, it's hard to judge just how much effort I'm putting into it with no readouts so what now feels like some real exercise might not be.  I  no longer have the speed to pedal rhythm associations I once had.  Finally, the cat lives in the basement thus it smells like cat down there.  This is not high on my list of things to smell when riding my bike. 

Back to running tomorrow.  I'm tempted to do some extra instead of sticking to the program, but I'm afraid I'll burn myself out at the same time and that could lead to skipping days.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Week two begins

Yes I know I started with the end of week 1.  Give me a break, I just decided to start tracking this an hour or so ago.

To being week two, I bought new shoes.  I hope they help with the back pain I get when I run.  Was going to get fitted, but the place was closed on Sunday so I just ran to the local Sports Authority because they seem to have the best overall selection of running shoes.  Finding something that worked took at least 15 tries.  Actually, it took 2, but I wasn't shelling out $150 for shoes today.  Maybe after Week 9 I will splurge on the good shoes to get me up to my 5 mile goal. 

Week 2 will include the introduction of a slow morning bike ride on the trainer Tuesday and Thursday.  Even though I'll only be doing 45 minutes, I think it will help with the recovery aspect of running and it can't hurt to add a little more activity.  Just wish the bike computer worked with the trainer.  I'm also hoping to add in a long Saturday or Sunday bike ride, but I'm not going to kill myself to do it this week.  Road riding near where I live always seems a bit too daredevil.  People don't seem to like cyclists riding on the street up here. 

End of week one

I've never been a runner for exercise purposes.  I always ran as part of a sport.  Running for exercise always seemed boring to me.  Any time I tried to run, walk or anything, I was lucky to make it two days.  Cycling was a different story, that was always fun, but the roads near me aren't really great for cycling.  Much easier to just walk out the front door and run.  Now I just have to do it.

I have multiple goals for this one.  I hope they will keep me motivated.  Short term I want to run a 5k.  Long term I want to be in shape to play with my son and be able to keep up with him as he gets older.  Other long term I need to get my weight down to join the JAG Corps, which is something I want for my future. 

Day 1 about killed me.  I was surprised I finished the last run interval.  Thighs hurt, back hurt, drenched in sweat.  All in all felt pretty good.

Day 2 was easier to finish all the the intervals.  Changed the route a little to get away from two hills.  Not really nasty ones, but not something I needed in week 1.

Day 3 actually finished the route before the podcast ended so I had to backtrack.  Still had the back pain, in fact it seemed worse today, though that could have been the fact that I was going faster.

The starting stats

 As I start the Couch to 5k plan, I've decided to track my progress as a motivational tool as much as anything else.  I'll keep track of my measurements as I go to see progress.  The other stuff I update at then end of 15 weeks when I get my follow up blood work.

Blood pressure - 135/85
Glucose - 103
Triglycerides - 202
Cholesterol - 217
LDL - 147
HDL - 30
Height - 69 to 70 inches
Weight - 245 on a scale at my parents' house last Easter. 
Measurements - I'll get some of those posted.