Monthly Archives: July 2012
Beyond the words
There’s no question that July has been one of my biggest up and down months ever based on how I feel.
I won’t rehash those feelings though in a monthly review. I survived running 102 miles through some tough moments and didn’t take time to appreciate the good moments enough. That’s July.
As I kick off another round of marathon training, it’s time to tackle some of the things I discussed in my important “Why I …” post. I can’t just put words down without action.
When the beginning of a new month, I feel like my head is in a good place. Now I have to make the body cooperate.
I’m going to smack August around a little bit and make the new month a core streak month. I’ve done this before with mixed results. This time around though I’m going to take some body measurements beyond the scale number and focus on my core. This means more sit-ups, push-ups, and weight workouts than I’ve done in a long time.
Core doesn’t mean just abs — it’s really attention to the whole body. And this isn’t a “plan” or a “schedule.” Each day will be based on feel or whatever I find on the Internet that looks fun.
I’m not happy with myself for slipping up so much in the past couple of months, but there’s no more time to place blame or write out more excuses.
I’m creating a special page this time around to keep up with what I’m doing. My goal is to develop something that I can do regularly beyond this month and just keep doing forever.
For now, though, it’s a bunch of words. Time to act.
August: More of this. Fewer cookies.
Spontaneous racing
View of the James River at Pony Pasture
Earlier this week I wrote that I would have my first July without a race in 3 years. Turns out, I was wrong.
A few days ago I discovered that there was a race about 10 minutes from me — the Pony Pasture 5k.
I almost signed up for it before online registration ended, but then I decided not to. I really didn’t want to move my long run to Sunday.
After staying up late last night to watch the opening of the Olympics, I did not feel like getting up really early to run 12 miles. I said that if I happened to wake up, I might do that race.
At 6 a.m., I was up. It was so strange how I seemed to pop out of bed — kind of like I was ready to race.
The race itself was nothing overly special — it was a great flat course alongside the James River, along a road that is part of the Richmond Marathon course.
I started way too fast hitting the first mile in exactly 7 minutes. With the humidity, I had to back off. It was like I could feel the heat hugging me.
All in all, though, it was a good race and an opportunity to get in some speed work. My official finishing time was 23:03 — the third time I have hit that mark in a 5k.
It was nice to fight through the humidity and run a little harder, but I know I have more in me. Part of it working on things I discussed in my last post, and part of it is the weather.
I’m in a good place though, and am eager to continue focusing on what’s ahead.
Why I …
This past month and a half has brought about a tremendous amount of change in my personal life. With a new job and a quick move to Richmond, I’m all shook up.
While the move has gone well, there’s no question that it’s taken a toll on my running. I’ve hinted a lot about things going well one day, not so great another. The swings with how I feel have not been normal.
I’ve neglected revealing my thoughts too much, mainly because I haven’t felt like writing about it, but I’m realizing more and more that if I don’t open up about why things are the way they are, I’m going to have an awful time training for the Richmond Marathon. So here are some things that have been going on, and how I plan to fix them as I prepare to flip the calendar to a new month.
Why I dropped my coach
Let me start with a shocker. I found myself not wanting to follow Coach Caleb’s plans for one reason or another. Some days I felt like I was pushing myself when I wanted to take it easy; other days I was taking it easy when I had more to give. These feelings would often come in the middle of a run.
Simply put, structured training is not for me.
While I am grateful for the few months of guidance and expertise he gave me, it started to feel like homework. I had too much extra thinking about it outside my daily routine. I know from my previous experience of feeling like that, training becomes dreadful and the fun disappears.
Why I turned around and had a good run
The day after that happened, I went for a run — a little short on time — and started to feel pretty good close to a mile in. When I hit that in a little more than 9 minutes, I thought it would be a good day for a progressive run.
My mile times were: 9:21, 8:54, 8:35, and 8:16. Instead of feeling guilty about not getting in my prescribed run or continuously thinking about what I “had” to do, I felt great about squeezing in a high quality run.
Why I’ve gained weight
This is exactly what I didn’t want to happen with a move, but with the various days of packing things, driving back and forth a couple of hours a few times, and having the kitchen be a mess, I got sloppy with eating. Late-night pizza or a trip through the drive-through seemed easier.
Of course it’s my own fault, but once a couple of meals go bad, it just spirals out of control.
I’ve gained about 4 pounds in the move despite actually running more, but I’m making some changes quickly to get back on track. It’s started with cutting out soft drinks. I’m close to 2 weeks in on that and have no desire to return.
Except for a sweet tea or a frozen caffeine drink occasionally, soft drinks are done for a while. I gotta figure something out about cookies too.
Why I stopped the “other” things
I was doing so well up until the Cleveland Half Marathon. That race and back-to-back weekends to Ohio is when it started. Then the move. Then the feeling like I had to learn new things with my coach. Then I started eating bad. You see where this is going. The excuses stop now.
It’s time to get back to going push-ups, planks, sit-ups, and more a few times a week. With that, the extra weight will come off; I’ll be stronger; I’ll get faster; I’ll stop having posts like this.
Why I’m faster
I don’t know the real answer to that. I’ve run more miles this year than ever before; I’ve run more than 1,100 miles in the past 12 months.
My runs have had so much more quality to them, and despite feeling bad with all these other things lately, I continue to see marked improvements in my running times. I’m happy with this and if I put all these other pieces together, I won’t need to analyze myself again any time soon.
Why I need to find a race
I alluded to this the other day, but I haven’t lined up for a race since the Cleveland Half. It’s maddening to not know what kind of race shape I’m in. With my move and various weekend plans that have happened, I just haven’t had time to do one. That will change soon, I promise.
Why I remain confident
This isn’t a post to beat myself up. It’s a post that gives me that coming-out-of-my-shell feeling since I’ve been so quiet for a while. I’ve always been honest to myself. Looking in the mirror to figure out what’s wrong makes the path to making it right so much clearer.
The rest of this summer doesn’t have to be a struggle; in fact I’m really looking forward to beating down some walls in the next several weeks.
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
No. 914
It’s been a while since I’ve had a numbered post (not including “12 things” because that’s different), but I have a few running-related things on my mind that don’t go together:
- I’m tired of being tired. My wife told me to stop telling myself that I’m tired. I’ve had ups and downs in a very short time frame with marathon training, some mental, some not. I’m tired of saying that.
- I took a look back at the beginning of my Baltimore Marathon training from a year ago and couldn’t believe how different my overall mileage is. Instead of starting in the low 20s for weekly mileage, I’m in the upper 20s. And that training schedule was 2 weeks shorter.
- I really need to add a couple of races to my calendar. This will be the first July I haven’t had a race since 2009.
- Speaking of my wife, she ran this morning. A 5k MAY be in her future. Maybe she’d have a better running blog than me right now.
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
It IS the humidity
In the middle of summer there’s a lot of bellyaching about the weather. It’s so hot.
Waaaahhhhhhh!!!!!!
I’ve usually been able to go with the flow with no issues. Last summer I was running in the middle of the day during lunch. Low to mid-90s were the norm.While it would be hot, there was a huge element of satisfaction after the runs.
This summer I’ve transitioned back to being a morning runner. Generally, the temperatures haven’t been so bad. Besides a few nights that didn’t escape the 80s, it’s been in the low to mid-70s for my runs.
But damn … the humidity at 6:30 a.m. this summer is a new experience for me. I don’t know if this summer is more humid than average, but I feel like I should just take a bar of soap with me and go ahead and clean myself in my own sweat.
There’s been an odd satisfaction when I finish each run, but for the past week or so I am drained at the end of the day. I’m finding myself taking a look at how I’m hydrating and whether or not I’m doing enough. Nutrition wise I think I need to examine things a bit closer to make sure I’m not missing something.
Next time you hear someone say “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity,” they’re right.
How much summer is left? Waaaahhhhhhh!!!!!!
Shoe check
For the past month I’ve been out of touch with something highly important to me — my paper backup.
I generally keep track of my mileage on dailymile, but in the past few months I’ve been logging more workouts via my iPhone, which means I haven’t kept track of my shoe mileage on the site. It’s in the paper backup.
Very quietly this year — probably too quiet — I’ve made a major shift in my shoes. At the beginning of the year I talked about my experiment to switch to Saucony Mirage. That worked so well through Shamrock that I dumped the other shoes I was wearing.
In addition to the switch of the main shoe, I also began wearing Saucony Kinvara 2 — initially it was an experiment to see how they felt. Since the price was so awesome on them, I couldn’t resist.
That experience has worked so well that I recently bought a second pair.
That brings me back to my paper backup — how many miles have I put on my shoes? Is the experiment working? During my move, my backup got packed away and forgotten about.
I had been keeping track of what shoes I was wearing in my Notes app and backtracked to add my miles from my dailymile records. (It’s all much more hands on than it needs to be, I know.)
This week, though, I found it and quickly added up my miles on my current shoes.
Saucony Mirage, green - 191.8
Saucony Mirage, black - 187.8
Saucony Kinvara 2 - 72.9
I couldn’t be happier with the way these shoes have performed and held up. My original pair of Mirage have gone through a few races with me — it’s a special shoe that I hate to part ways with later this summer.
In what has become a norm for me, I have no reason to buy anything new — I have another pair of Mirage and a second pair of Kinvara that are in my closet waiting to see some action. I’m sure I’ll soon purchase a pair that will be devoted for the Richmond Marathon.
I often get asked about shoes and my response is the same: find what works for you. This is not an endorsement of these models — I just happen to like them a lot.
They work for me right now, but I know that may not always be the case. For now, though, I’ll continue to enjoy the ride these shoes offer.
Recent Comments