For a day and a half, and then I'm heading up north for a family wedding. It'll be fun, but I'm tired, but it'll be fun...
I didn't do any more speedwork sessions in NY, just a couple more runs if memory serves me right. Then we went down to PA and I got a couple of solid runs on the Haverford College loop---love it--approx 5 miles and approx 10 miles, the latter being my long run these days. No resistance training.
The travel and accumulating number of random pepper-seasoned meals have been catching up with me. We left PA for the beach, finally, NJ, and I was so looking forward to a long run or two just loping along the beach for an hour or two, and it didn't happen. I was--still am--drained. My guts were haywire and I didn't seem to be absorbing enough. My heart was starting to do its thing again, no big episodes, but plenty of little flips here and there which are tiring enough. My legs were already getting to the heavy point in PA, and I guess the ten miler totally plowed me. I got to NJ and the first two days, I walked. No running. It felt hard walking for about an hour on the sand--it was tiring trying to stand up straight. not good! Finally, I felt strong enough to run, about 3-4 miles. The following morning, my husband and I did 5 miles, and it winded me. It was so discouraging.
As much as I was looking forward to this vacation with my newly returned husband :), I was also dreading the logistics, the havoc of visiting six states, with ample car trips in between (I get carsick), the havoc of strange beds for four weeks, the havoc of trying to do workouts in unsuitable places, the havoc of trigger foods galore. Especially pepper. For someone who has happily and blithely scarfed down street food and raw food and strange food in various countries, I am disgusting sensitive to peppercorns, which are pretty much thrown into everything in the upper two countries of NAFTA, including salad dressings, cold-fish/shellfish salads, any mashed vegetable, pasta sauce, soup, meat seasoning, etc, etc, etc. And I'm too darn polite. I abhor asking my hosts if there is pepper in this or that, or holding up the waiters asking about it. It shouldn't be a big deal but it is a resounding failure for me. I'm still used to having a food allergy or sensitivity or whatever the heck it is. I guess I have to call it an allergy. No, I'm not going to spectacularly sprout pustules or require an emergency trach, but it does get pretty gross and dismal. I've lost about 5 pounds in the last week or so. I could have easily afforded to lose 5 pounds, but definitely not like that.
Enough bitching! I have a busy weekend to get through, and then hopefully I can get into a routine, or get back into the routine I had in Florida. That had gone really well and I'm proud of how much I and my husband were able to accomplish there. And the rest of the trip was fun, just not good workout or health-wise. There is some consolation to having an overactive digestive system: it was extremely well-timed: I didn't give a second thought about eating anything buttery or sugary or generally boardwalk-fatty in New Jersey. As long as it didn't have pepper in it, it could have been deep-fried lard for all I cared. The horse had left the barn. Onwards and upwards!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
update
Sort of...my log is on my laptop, and I don't fancy firing that thing up right now. no wireless here. I'll dump the bare numbers here later.
Meanwhile, it's been interesting getting runs in. I've had to be a bit flexible. We were down in Florida for ten days and I don't think the humidex ever went below 30C, even early in the morning. Fortunately, there was a local gym/shack nearby, and we figured out that if we jogged there, turned the AC on, then returned after a couple of miles, it wasn't too bad. I got in 4 speedwork/resistance sessions while I was there, which I was really happy about. The treadmill was flimsy but it held up well enough. On other days, we did easy runs. I think there was only one day we didn't run. Not bad for the tropics!
1. 5X 1km, 8.0-8.4 mph. This is significantly slower than in the past, but I was sweating my butt off because we'd just arrived and we hadn't found the electrical box to turn the AC on yet. I felt like I wasn't breathing hard enough, yet my level of effort was quite hard.
2. 2 miles tempo, sprints. This was supposed to be 2 X 2miles, but I cut it short. It was at 7:42/mile, which is slow, and I wasn't breathing as hard as usual for a tempo, but my heartrate and sweat glands were working harder than they should have been. It was a disconcerting feeling and I didn't have it mentally together so I canned it after 2 miles and went outside and did a bunch of 10 second sprints instead. Then weights.
3. 2X 2 miles tempo, 7:36/mile. I knew I had to focus, so I was a lot stronger. I found out that if I counted to 100 breaths, it went by a lot easier. It didn't matter so much that I had to do this at least 8 times...the 100 breaths went by pretty quickly and I had enough to think about that I could trick myself that 100 was going to be it. It's great to have another mental tool like this.
4. 5X 1km, 8.1-8.6 mph. I counted 100s again and these went by quickly. The last two, at 8.4-8.6 (I'd bump it up halfway through) felt more honest, so hopefully I can hit them harder next time.
Next time! I'm not sure what I'll be on then, ground or TM.
I'm in NY now and it's the usual not-fun place to run--we're in the hills, and the roads usually have a steep camber, so I don't enjoy it much. I got in a good tempo run, though: downhill (mostly) the first mile, and even with holding back a fair bit, it was about 8 minutes. So I decided that, as punishment, I had to hold that for the next two miles, which were mostly uphill, ending near the top of a steep incline. I managed around 8:10-15/mile, which was tough enough. Then it was another downhill jog home.
The next day, my husband and I ran/jogged/suffered to the top of one of the 'mountains', lol, but it was hard enough. 2 miles up and 2 miles down. I'm thrilled that our average speed up was around 11:00/mile--last time, it was closer to 13:00.
Then we went to visit family in Mass and it was kind of tricky getting a run in there, it being one of those places where the roads somehow aren't swell to run along. Plus it was pretty soggy so we ended up running back and forth under a powerline. No bears, thank goodness.
We're back in NY and I'm hoping we can get on post to use the TM. Not sure. In a few days, we'll be in PA and NJ where the running is PRIME (nice trail loop, BEACH), and I'm really looking forward to that.
I haven't been doing any long runs--longest runs have been about 8 miles--and my mileage the last two weeks has been around, oh, 25-30 miles a week, but I've gotten in speedwork and resistance exercises regularly and I think I'm starting to feel stronger.
At any rate, it's been wonderful jogging with my husband :)
Meanwhile, it's been interesting getting runs in. I've had to be a bit flexible. We were down in Florida for ten days and I don't think the humidex ever went below 30C, even early in the morning. Fortunately, there was a local gym/shack nearby, and we figured out that if we jogged there, turned the AC on, then returned after a couple of miles, it wasn't too bad. I got in 4 speedwork/resistance sessions while I was there, which I was really happy about. The treadmill was flimsy but it held up well enough. On other days, we did easy runs. I think there was only one day we didn't run. Not bad for the tropics!
1. 5X 1km, 8.0-8.4 mph. This is significantly slower than in the past, but I was sweating my butt off because we'd just arrived and we hadn't found the electrical box to turn the AC on yet. I felt like I wasn't breathing hard enough, yet my level of effort was quite hard.
2. 2 miles tempo, sprints. This was supposed to be 2 X 2miles, but I cut it short. It was at 7:42/mile, which is slow, and I wasn't breathing as hard as usual for a tempo, but my heartrate and sweat glands were working harder than they should have been. It was a disconcerting feeling and I didn't have it mentally together so I canned it after 2 miles and went outside and did a bunch of 10 second sprints instead. Then weights.
3. 2X 2 miles tempo, 7:36/mile. I knew I had to focus, so I was a lot stronger. I found out that if I counted to 100 breaths, it went by a lot easier. It didn't matter so much that I had to do this at least 8 times...the 100 breaths went by pretty quickly and I had enough to think about that I could trick myself that 100 was going to be it. It's great to have another mental tool like this.
4. 5X 1km, 8.1-8.6 mph. I counted 100s again and these went by quickly. The last two, at 8.4-8.6 (I'd bump it up halfway through) felt more honest, so hopefully I can hit them harder next time.
Next time! I'm not sure what I'll be on then, ground or TM.
I'm in NY now and it's the usual not-fun place to run--we're in the hills, and the roads usually have a steep camber, so I don't enjoy it much. I got in a good tempo run, though: downhill (mostly) the first mile, and even with holding back a fair bit, it was about 8 minutes. So I decided that, as punishment, I had to hold that for the next two miles, which were mostly uphill, ending near the top of a steep incline. I managed around 8:10-15/mile, which was tough enough. Then it was another downhill jog home.
The next day, my husband and I ran/jogged/suffered to the top of one of the 'mountains', lol, but it was hard enough. 2 miles up and 2 miles down. I'm thrilled that our average speed up was around 11:00/mile--last time, it was closer to 13:00.
Then we went to visit family in Mass and it was kind of tricky getting a run in there, it being one of those places where the roads somehow aren't swell to run along. Plus it was pretty soggy so we ended up running back and forth under a powerline. No bears, thank goodness.
We're back in NY and I'm hoping we can get on post to use the TM. Not sure. In a few days, we'll be in PA and NJ where the running is PRIME (nice trail loop, BEACH), and I'm really looking forward to that.
I haven't been doing any long runs--longest runs have been about 8 miles--and my mileage the last two weeks has been around, oh, 25-30 miles a week, but I've gotten in speedwork and resistance exercises regularly and I think I'm starting to feel stronger.
At any rate, it's been wonderful jogging with my husband :)
Monday, July 6, 2009
Trying to get back in the saddle
I am trying to make the best of my vacation time, and summer, by getting back into a good routine.
Today, I got out about an hour later than I'd hoped for, just before 7, but it was still fairly cool. I'd hoped to sort of combine the two speedwork workouts I missed last week: 2X 15min tempo and 100M repeats, and since it was only about 13C, my dog might have been game. Unfortunately, he'd had an allergic reaction at the lake yesterday. His muzzle had swelled dramatically. We're not sure what he'd gotten into, or what had bit him, but he was out of sorts until the swelling went down. He looks back to normal today but he was dragging even on the short walk out, and we ran about 200M before I decided to call it a day. He picked up speed dramatically on the way back and returned to bed. Poor guy. He'll get a walk later with the other dog.
Anyway, I headed back out and after a warm up jog, I hit the Canal and did the tempo stuff with about 5 min recovery in between (a bit long, but I wanted to hit a not-quite nearby fountain for water). The first segment was 1.92 miles, the 2nd 1.98 miles, according to Garmin (which sometimes falls a touch short, but we won't think about that). A bit slow, but ok. Then I jogged a bit and did 8X approx 100M in a park on dirt. It was flat but a bit chewed up, but that's ok. I would have done 2 more repeats but the park is an unofficial dog park and more and more dogs were off leash. That's ok, I was expecting that, and having a dirt strip in shade was a good trade off. This workout, which was supposed to be on a separate day, was 2X 10 X 100M with 30 seconds rest, but at a slower pace. I've done this sort of workout before and it really doesn't seem to do anything for me. I feel like a bit of a prig for thinking that; certainly if all I was doing was the 100M repeats today, I would have done 20 of them, but a bit faster with much more recovery in between. I usually stroll back and take about 1:30 doing so. LOL That's what I'm more suited for. It's much much much more fun to push more and feel the burn and then get more of a break. When it comes to 400Ms, yeah, I'll do them slower with shorter recoveries, but 100Ms seem to be mainly anaerobic anyway so might as well work that more fully.
I also did a very modest set of plyometrics: 2X 50M skipping. I hope to bump these up gradually and get into the jumps/hops soon. I was doing this in the States regularly, but it's not something my run club does, except in a lighter/easier form as a warm up, and I miss it.
After that, I jogged/walked home and did resistance exercises and ate breakfast. Is there another good source of potassium besides bananas? I despise bananas. Other than that, it was a great fun hard workout day.
I see that next week's tempo segments are 20 min long, and then we get into longer continuous tempo runs...I think, since I'm going to be away from run club for about a month, and apart from June we don't do tempo runs together anyway, I'd rather gradually bump up my 2 segments to 20 min, and whittle down the break in between, than do a longer tempo run. In june, we did 30-35-40 min over a few weeks, and I found that it was hard to concentrate and push for the entire thing...the first half was soft and I kept catching myself coasting, so it ended up being the fast end of easy on the way out and then 15-20 min of what I'd call true tempo going back. And without the run club companions, I probably wouldn't have done the workouts at all, judging by past months. With 15 min segments, however, it's much more interesting and honest and I can get into a better rhythm and go faster. Ultimately, the best thing might be to keep the 15 min segments, maybe morph slowly into 20 min, and lengthen the jogging portion afterwards, and gradually add a 2nd batch of tempo segments after the jogging portion. This was like the DAniels workouts I used to do--they were hard but seemed very beneficial.
I think I'm going off the rails partly because I don't really have plans or goal races this fall: the pressure's off, no long-long runs, no marathon training, so it's a good time to experiment with workouts. I would like to do the Winterman again next Feb, but that's a ways away.
At any rate, I'm really happy with what I did today!
Tomorrow, we're flying down to Florida. It will be hot and humid but there's a gym; if I make it early, it won't be too bad to do speedwork and resistance exercises. And on easy days, it will be fine jogging outside. After a week and a half, we'll go up to NY for almost a week, and since that's in the 'mountains', it's not really the best thing running-wise (it's not much fun), so maybe I'll do my tempo segments jogging up those long, long hills. LOL. Then it'll be almost a week in PA and NJ, which is prime running--there's a great 2.5 dirt loop where we'll be in PA and tracks, and a fair load of fast local runners, so it's very inspiring to run there. And NJ is flat and beach, so no shoes on easy days, and maybe not even on speedwork days if I feel up to it.
Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention the new shoes--I got two pairs of Nike Track Star shoes for $40 apiece in Texas. Discount at the PX, oh, yeah. I was impressed because usually the PX has a crappy selection of women's running shoes, but this one actually had at least a couple different models of racing flats, plus Nike Frees. They didn't have my size but they had two pairs a 1/2 size larger and that seemed fine. They're really light and flexible--I think I like them even better than my Saucony shoes. So it looks like I'm back to wearing Nike. For the time being. lol
Internet access will be spotty while I'm gone, so maybe I'll have the mother of all updates in Aug.
Today, I got out about an hour later than I'd hoped for, just before 7, but it was still fairly cool. I'd hoped to sort of combine the two speedwork workouts I missed last week: 2X 15min tempo and 100M repeats, and since it was only about 13C, my dog might have been game. Unfortunately, he'd had an allergic reaction at the lake yesterday. His muzzle had swelled dramatically. We're not sure what he'd gotten into, or what had bit him, but he was out of sorts until the swelling went down. He looks back to normal today but he was dragging even on the short walk out, and we ran about 200M before I decided to call it a day. He picked up speed dramatically on the way back and returned to bed. Poor guy. He'll get a walk later with the other dog.
Anyway, I headed back out and after a warm up jog, I hit the Canal and did the tempo stuff with about 5 min recovery in between (a bit long, but I wanted to hit a not-quite nearby fountain for water). The first segment was 1.92 miles, the 2nd 1.98 miles, according to Garmin (which sometimes falls a touch short, but we won't think about that). A bit slow, but ok. Then I jogged a bit and did 8X approx 100M in a park on dirt. It was flat but a bit chewed up, but that's ok. I would have done 2 more repeats but the park is an unofficial dog park and more and more dogs were off leash. That's ok, I was expecting that, and having a dirt strip in shade was a good trade off. This workout, which was supposed to be on a separate day, was 2X 10 X 100M with 30 seconds rest, but at a slower pace. I've done this sort of workout before and it really doesn't seem to do anything for me. I feel like a bit of a prig for thinking that; certainly if all I was doing was the 100M repeats today, I would have done 20 of them, but a bit faster with much more recovery in between. I usually stroll back and take about 1:30 doing so. LOL That's what I'm more suited for. It's much much much more fun to push more and feel the burn and then get more of a break. When it comes to 400Ms, yeah, I'll do them slower with shorter recoveries, but 100Ms seem to be mainly anaerobic anyway so might as well work that more fully.
I also did a very modest set of plyometrics: 2X 50M skipping. I hope to bump these up gradually and get into the jumps/hops soon. I was doing this in the States regularly, but it's not something my run club does, except in a lighter/easier form as a warm up, and I miss it.
After that, I jogged/walked home and did resistance exercises and ate breakfast. Is there another good source of potassium besides bananas? I despise bananas. Other than that, it was a great fun hard workout day.
I see that next week's tempo segments are 20 min long, and then we get into longer continuous tempo runs...I think, since I'm going to be away from run club for about a month, and apart from June we don't do tempo runs together anyway, I'd rather gradually bump up my 2 segments to 20 min, and whittle down the break in between, than do a longer tempo run. In june, we did 30-35-40 min over a few weeks, and I found that it was hard to concentrate and push for the entire thing...the first half was soft and I kept catching myself coasting, so it ended up being the fast end of easy on the way out and then 15-20 min of what I'd call true tempo going back. And without the run club companions, I probably wouldn't have done the workouts at all, judging by past months. With 15 min segments, however, it's much more interesting and honest and I can get into a better rhythm and go faster. Ultimately, the best thing might be to keep the 15 min segments, maybe morph slowly into 20 min, and lengthen the jogging portion afterwards, and gradually add a 2nd batch of tempo segments after the jogging portion. This was like the DAniels workouts I used to do--they were hard but seemed very beneficial.
I think I'm going off the rails partly because I don't really have plans or goal races this fall: the pressure's off, no long-long runs, no marathon training, so it's a good time to experiment with workouts. I would like to do the Winterman again next Feb, but that's a ways away.
At any rate, I'm really happy with what I did today!
Tomorrow, we're flying down to Florida. It will be hot and humid but there's a gym; if I make it early, it won't be too bad to do speedwork and resistance exercises. And on easy days, it will be fine jogging outside. After a week and a half, we'll go up to NY for almost a week, and since that's in the 'mountains', it's not really the best thing running-wise (it's not much fun), so maybe I'll do my tempo segments jogging up those long, long hills. LOL. Then it'll be almost a week in PA and NJ, which is prime running--there's a great 2.5 dirt loop where we'll be in PA and tracks, and a fair load of fast local runners, so it's very inspiring to run there. And NJ is flat and beach, so no shoes on easy days, and maybe not even on speedwork days if I feel up to it.
Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention the new shoes--I got two pairs of Nike Track Star shoes for $40 apiece in Texas. Discount at the PX, oh, yeah. I was impressed because usually the PX has a crappy selection of women's running shoes, but this one actually had at least a couple different models of racing flats, plus Nike Frees. They didn't have my size but they had two pairs a 1/2 size larger and that seemed fine. They're really light and flexible--I think I like them even better than my Saucony shoes. So it looks like I'm back to wearing Nike. For the time being. lol
Internet access will be spotty while I'm gone, so maybe I'll have the mother of all updates in Aug.
Update
:) :) :)
Yep, he's back.
I have been running, but haven't really been tracking it, although I've done speedwork twice and resistance exercises twice, so I'm not off the wagon completely. I'm trying to tighten up my schedule somewhat.
TExas was fun but 37-38C without humidex; we did a lot of walking outdoors and I ran on a TM indoors.
The other big news is that instead of waiting 5 months to see the heart specialist, I saw him yesterday and it looks like I'll be having minor surgery this fall. I'm thrilled, I didn't think it would happen this quickly. There is a small risk of things getting worse, but the odds are very good, possibly better for me because my heart and I are otherwise healthy. All the doctor has to do is cauterize excess electrical tissue. It seems like such a small matter, but that little bit of wayward impulse has made me so tired. It seems to take a week to fully recover from a big episode, and even after a little flutter (like today, ten seconds or so), I feel drained. This heart blip wasn't the only factor that affected my spring training/races, but it was probably more significant than I'd realized at the time.
Meanwhile, I'm running with the dog, and with my husband :) and trying to get the harder workouts in when I can, but without putting any pressure on myself. My only race is the Army Run and possibly the surgery will conflict with that, so I can't set goals. At any rate, we're heading back south for a few weeks, so I get more heat acclimatization.
Yep, he's back.
I have been running, but haven't really been tracking it, although I've done speedwork twice and resistance exercises twice, so I'm not off the wagon completely. I'm trying to tighten up my schedule somewhat.
TExas was fun but 37-38C without humidex; we did a lot of walking outdoors and I ran on a TM indoors.
The other big news is that instead of waiting 5 months to see the heart specialist, I saw him yesterday and it looks like I'll be having minor surgery this fall. I'm thrilled, I didn't think it would happen this quickly. There is a small risk of things getting worse, but the odds are very good, possibly better for me because my heart and I are otherwise healthy. All the doctor has to do is cauterize excess electrical tissue. It seems like such a small matter, but that little bit of wayward impulse has made me so tired. It seems to take a week to fully recover from a big episode, and even after a little flutter (like today, ten seconds or so), I feel drained. This heart blip wasn't the only factor that affected my spring training/races, but it was probably more significant than I'd realized at the time.
Meanwhile, I'm running with the dog, and with my husband :) and trying to get the harder workouts in when I can, but without putting any pressure on myself. My only race is the Army Run and possibly the surgery will conflict with that, so I can't set goals. At any rate, we're heading back south for a few weeks, so I get more heat acclimatization.
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