Monthly Archives: February 2009
5,502
That’s the number of stairs I took this month at work. It’s amazing how quickly this has become a habit. I don’t even think about hitting the elevator button when I go into work in the mornings. And that last flight of steps have become much easier too.
Unfortunately, I’ve only been able to get one other person to commit to the steps (Stephanie over at Wishful Shrinking, who promises to get back to blogging soon). Otherwise I’ve heard a lot of “I need to do that” or “I should start that.” Well, then, do it …
Good, not great, but I'm OK
With this being American Health Month, my employer partnered with one of the local hospitals to provide a free heart health assessment, complete with a cholesterol, glucose and blood pressure check. It’s been about five years since I’ve had much of that checked, so I was a bit nervous today with what my numbers might be. While the past few months have been fine with exercise, I admittedly haven’t been the best eater.
However, it turns out that things are going OK. My blood pressue is perfect. Hell, I was afraid being at work might make it spike. My bad cholesterol numbers are just fine — well below 200. My good cholesterol, though, isn’t so great. The nurse attributed that most likely to my diet and genetics since I’m getting plenty of exercise. I also have good news in that my glucose numbers are fine. And, lastly, my BMI is just a tad high, which I knew without having to be told. The nurse told me that it’s nothing to worry about with my active lifestyle.
When I was talking to the nurse about what I do and how the past few months have been with a baby, I started sounding like someone I don’t like — I was listing a bunch of excuses for bad eating and not staying on track with exercising last year with injuries. Sure I couldn’t run as much as I wanted, but I didn’t join the gym until October.
So, the end of the story is pretty much what I already knew - lose about 10 pounds and I’ll be a healthy machine for many years to come.
Hello portion and lifestyle change that I made five years ago … nice to see you again.
10 … on the bike
I’m tired today, but I managed to get in 10.1 miles on the bike — probably my longest ride since I was in my early teens. I just got on the bike and rode. Too bad I didn’t really go anywhere. It actually went by fairly quickly though. My iPod had an interesting trio of songs with Dave Matthews Band, Dr. Dre and Aerosmith to keep me going tonight. I also got in a quick couple of miles on the elliptical runner. Add on the mile I walked with my dog and you have yourself a half-marathon night.
That’s all … like I said, I’m tired.
It's coming together
On yesterday’s long run, I managed to put together a few miles without ever looking down at my watch. I got in that zone that’s so hard to get into. As usual, my thoughts ran wildly throughout the run, but near the end of those 8.1 miles I felt good with where things are right now. I can’t help but compare myself to last year at this time — last year I felt like I was forcing my runs. Sure, I had a good February, but it all felt useless when I hurt myself in the Shamrock Half.
Last year I was focused on a PR … this year that’s not so important. Sure I’ll be elated if it happens, but it’s not my focus for this stretch of training. I just want to run and be happy doing it. So far, that plan is working. And unlike last year and the year before when I set that PR, cross training is involved this time around. The benefits are tremendous. While I would have liked to have gotten another couple of miles in running this week, I am a little more at ease with having a couple of short bike rides in. I still pulled off a little more than 20 running miles though for the second straight week.
For next week’s long run, I’m shooting for double digits - that hasn’t happened for almost six months. And I don’t have any weird feelings about it either. With this steady increase in mileage for the year, it’s right where I need to be. I can’t wait!
Craving that long run
It’s been one of those weeks in which I can’t hardly wait for the weekend to get here. I want to get outside, breathe in some fresh air and just run. I don’t care how fast or slow - I just want an hour-plus to debrief. Work, which I refuse to talk about on here, has been unnecessarily silly and I just want to run those thoughts out of my head.
Home life, which I don’t refuse to talk about on here but rarely bring it up, is great. My son is quickly approaching four months old. He’s such a joy, smiling more and more every day keeping us entertained. As I’ve mentioned, part of my reason for doing the Shamrock Half next month is because so many people talked about how hard training is with a baby. I’m not going to say it hasn’t been hard — I’ve had to completely shift around what I’m used to doing - but to me it’s more of a new challenge. I’m not expecting a PR next month. I’m expecting to complete it and be ecstatic that I’ve completed a half marathon before my son is even five months old. It’s like an “I told you so” type thing … but I think I’m only proving to myself how important it is to stay healthy.
Speaking of health, I feel like I’ve doomed to never lose weight again. Part of that is because of home life — those with babies know how much that impact meals. It’s not that I’ve been eating totally bad, but dinner is quick, which leads to overeating during the evening. Like when I come home from the gym around 9 a.m., I’m flippin’ hungry.
This all being said, this is really a make-or-break week with Shamrock training. There’s a little more than four weeks to go until the race. The last four weeks are the most important in my mind. I’ve come a long way this year with getting back in running shape and this week to me is crucial in assuring I complete this race like I want to. I feel like if something goes wrong in the next few days, then I just can’t make it up.
So like I said at the beginning, I’m really longing for the long run this week. Long runs keep me sane, and it keeps my posts from drifting all over the place …
An OK race, but a good run
This may be the least that I have to say about an actual race, but for the time I was running there’s really not much to say. I finished today’s Sweetheart 8k in 40:01, just a tad more than 8 minutes a mile. Like last year, the initial half-mile uphill was the make-or-break point for this race. I handled it OK, getting the first mile in at 8:17. The next mile was mostly downhill and I was rolling along at just over 7 minutes. The rest of the race was up and down, as were my times. In the end though, I felt good about what I had done despite not breaking last year’s time. For me, this was a test of my race shape. I’ll give myself a B-minus. I feel good about what I can do in the next five weeks to have a good half marathon. A PR may be out of reach at this point, but it may set me up for a good rest of the year.
On the flip side of things, I’m not trying to use this an excuse for running slower than I wanted, but the temperature at race start was about 30 degrees. It felt flippin’ cold after near-record highs earlier this week. It was nearly a 30-degree swing in temperatures from running outside last week. Another issue that I couldn’t control was the start of the race — it started 10 minutes late. WTF?? I have NEVER started a race that late … two, maybe three minutes, but 10 minutes? After warming up, I was ready to go … not stand around and wait for the thing to start.
I hate to talk bad about the local running club’s races, but this isn’t the first somewhat unorganized event I’ve attended. On top of the late start, there were only two portapotties for more than 300 finishers - fortunately I didn’t have to pee, but … and there was a long line for water and the usual after-race treats — something I had not seen before at a community race. Usually water is pretty accessible, but not today for some reason.
All in all, though, today was a very good day. I got in some speedwork, but I wasn’t as fast as I’d like. I ended up getting in 6.3 miles total today and after another run tomorrow, I’ll have more than 20 miles for the week. After taking off time from thinking about racing for a while and resting up my body, I think I kind of expected today’s results. I hit the reset button on my own with running, and it’s up to me to stay focused and get back to where I was a couple of years ago. It will be done …
(Funny thing… after writing all this I just went back and read last year’s post about this race. Eerily similar, including my use of bold and italics, minus the race complaints. Click here to check it out.)
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