So, this week has been rather tiring. The weather heated up, highs of about 28C for 3 days, plus extra humidity, plus airborne allergens. I just walked with the dog Mon-Tues-Wed; he has been very good at getting me out of the house in the mornings. Thurs, we ran the 3 mile loop. Friday, we jogged/walked 1.5 as a warm up for my subsequent 2.5 mile tempo run on the TM. Saturday, we walked. I'd meant to do my last long run then, but I woke up feeling crappy, or not less crappy than the rest of the week as I'd hoped.
Today was the day.
The boys and I hit the 8 mile hilly loop. I hadn't attempted it since the recent incident and I was feeling a bit ill over the prospect, so having company really really helped. My husband took the dog's leash, relieving me of all bending-down responsibility. All I had to do was get into a relaxed zone and take the hills easy.
Which I managed to do! The first series of hills was relaxing. Even the second series was mostly relaxing, up until about halfway up the penultimate steep/tough hill. My breathing sped up at this point, but I think that's the latest it has on this route. I'd never made it through the second series of hills so relatively unscathed before. The cool weather helped, as well as the relatively clear air.
The big hill was tough as usual, but my numbers mental game is pretty well established, and that carried me through to a 9:32 mile up that thing. Fastest ever, I think.
We returned home while I contemplated a second loop. The prospect of boredom dissuaded me and I chose instead the treadmill and the 2012 Berlin marathon. I would run for 2 hrs, with at least one 10 minute interval at a steeper incline to simulate the 2nd hill on the course.
Unfortunately, the Berlin marathon replay this year isn't free!!! bummer. I found the Frankfurt replay, but it was in German...eventually, I chose London 2012 (not the Olympics), which I may have seen before (I can't remember, so essentially not).
Thus armed, I started on tired legs and strangely tired and squeezed lungs. The air in my house wasn't good for some reason! This has happened before but usually I find the air quality worse outside. I opened windows and turned on fans, to no avail.
My ten minute hills were at 30 minutes and 1:30. The last one was beastly--the first one, I held onto form and the same pace, the last one was a struggle and I had to drop down a bit and bluntly, mindlessly, fling all my shit upward. I was a wreck. I have no idea what the grade is apart from over 1%--the TM is at about %1 at its flattest. After it, there were only 20 minutes remaining of my run, but they were nasty.
It's been an hour since I stopped--I showered and then lay on the floor to relax for a while. My lungs still feel raw and my breathing kind of pressed. I am now drinking a recovery drink; I felt too queasy before to do that. I'd tried a new workout drink today and I think it helped me for a while but I shouldn't have drunk so much of it. Oh, well, it's done and in the past now.
I have to study the course more...all I remember is that it's 2x a 13.1 mile out-and-back, with lots of little hills, there will be a major hill twice. My goal? Finish. I'm out of shape and this isn't a fast course: http://www.psychowyco.com/pilgrimpacer/id3.html Hopefully the air clears up by then!
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Sunday, October 21, 2012
the hill
Tuesday, I attempted the 8 mile loop with the big hill. Unfortunately, right before the hill, I stopped and bent over to untangle the dog and leash, and SVT kicked in. And it stayed for at least 20 minutes. My tricks didn't work, not carotid massage, not relaxation, not slight hyperventilation, nothing. I tried jogging up but gave up, even though it really didn't matter what I did. I was going to be uncomfortable no matter what.
This was the longest bout I've had in ages, probably since the operation. It was very demoralizing at first. Oh, ____, this again, what's the point, etc, etc. It's a relatively harmless but uncomfortable thing which could theoretically wear my heart out a couple of decades or so early, but at the time, it assumed a graver magnitude. I walked up the hill while sinking deeper and yet also while slipping out of my body somehow, floating to the relief of incomplete presence.
And then, at the top of the hill was a clump of vivid red sumac in a sunlit field. Sumac tethers me to familiarity in general, the smell, the look, especially during this fall season otherwise devoid of red leaves. I clung to that red sumac and further pulled myself out of myself in the process. I don't remember being with the dog except that I stopped to let him sniff and let myself stare at the red leaves. He was a very good boy. We stayed on the summit for an indefinite length of time. My state of mind was not very temporal.
Eventually, with an almost audible click, my heart rate went back to normal. We headed down the hill, I broke into a light jog to help clear things, but it was so fatiguing. We walked and jogged--just downhill joggged--home. SVT is perhaps the ultimate cardio workout. The 20-30 minute bouts used to leave me tired for about a week afterward.
However, it seems that I'm stronger now. I was tired the next day and just walked with the dog, but the following day, I felt strong enough to run the 3 mile loop. It was an almost 3 mile loop to be accurate: the last time I ran the 3 mile loop, with my husband and the dog, another pitbull-type dog that is usually tied up ran out to greet us...fortunately in good humour. It was larger than my dog (who is supposedly larger than a 'purebred' pit bull (there is much debate about the breed, or umbrella of closely-related breeds/strains, etc)--its head was proportionally much broader than my dog's. We stopped and let the dogs sniff each other then calmly walked away. There wasn't much else we could do because it ran out so suddenly. It seemed like a pretty chill dog after the initial few seconds, but some dogs eventually take a dislike to each other and so I altered our route.
Friday, I ran for 7 songs on the TM--a tempo run. 24:10, so about 3 miles on the flat.
Saturday, I walked with the dog.
I'm omitting the cross-training workouts I did this week out of laziness; at least I did the workouts! Oh, I should mention the pistol squats I did on Friday, because the delayed muscle soreness was a factor today.
I'd thought about attempting the 8 mile loop again, but it was already too warm (Tuesday was also a warmish day, which could have been a factor). Plan B was a long easy run on the treadmill. I found a video of the 2012 Rotterdam marathon and started jogging.
But my ass hurt too much to go slow. I needed to apply a certain amount of force and/or momentum to push past the discomfort, like one needs to apply a certain amount of force to separate two magnets stuck together. Or a certain amount of force to push a gate open--that's a more appropriate comparison. I pushed the speed control up and found that 6 mph was more comfortable. Breathing was still easy, but there was enough momentum to help.
This really wasn't 6 mph. I've mentioned the stinginess of the FREE treadmill before (I am not ungrateful, just realistic)...it's about ~1 mph in the midrange off, I think, at least in terms of effort because it is also set at a slight incline at its flattest setting. 6.5-6.7 feels like tempo run which would be about 7.5-7.7 on the flat outside. The lack of flat outside adds to the confusion. Really, I cannot tell what I should be running. I should just ditch all numbers and just gauge effort, but I like numbers.
Anyway, I ran for 2 hours. Tiredness emerged quickly and stayed. I kept having to tweak things to avoid points of fatigue. There were a few minutes here and there of relative ease, when balance and positioning were optimal and I recaptured the hip piston action I've been pursuing like a silently fleeing wild turkey blending into the shadowy brush (a friend mentioned turkeys on FB recently, and I've been thinking of them and the way they can melt out of sight). All too soon, however, the turkey was gone and I was edging into inefficiency. But, somehow on a very uniform running surface, I managed to change things up often, and time went by relatively quickly.
For the last half hour, I bumped the speed up to 6.3 mph (~7.3ish) to avoid accumulating discomfort. This strategy worked well the last time I was starting to feel bogged down. 7.3 mph is 8:13/mile, which is a very mechanically comfortable pace for me...it's a bit harder than 9 min/mile, and burns glycogen more quickly, but is nevertheless easier in a way. 8:05-8:15/mile is my happy pace zone, I guess. I was very tired during the last half hour, but being in my happy pace zone helped a lot, as did the timing of the marathon footage. The first woman crossed the finish line at my 2:29, leaving me just a minute to slog through sort of on my own.
This run was a huge confidence booster because it was a test of stamina, which is my weakest point in running. I am not fast, but I do better at the faster shorter workouts, and I develop endurance--long and slow--relatively easy and can coast about for hours in comfort, even beyond the marathon distance, when I'm fit, but I dislike breathing harder for more than a few minutes. My breathing wasn't 'hard' during this run, but it was a steady 4-2 and 2-2 rhythm, which is faster than usual on my long easy runs. It was probably mostly 2-2. The hills here have forced me to accept that for longer periods of time, I guess, and I don't notice it was well. And perhaps the SVT has made me a little bit stronger after all. Maintaining a heart rate in the 228-240 beats/minute range is not something I can usually do; I'm lucky to get much above 200 during the toughest interval workouts. At any rate, moving from 5.7 to 6.0 as a long run pace was a big development.
I signed up for a local (hilly, of course) marathon which happens to be in three weeks. I still have time for a long slow run, either outside or on the TM, and maybe a couple of 8 mile big hill runs. I have not been training very much compared to the past, but in the past few months, I have done a few runs in the 2:30-3 hr range outside, including 2 that were about 3 hrs long (but slow because the temps were 31-35 C, not including humidex), and a 2:50, a 3 hr, and two runs around 2:30 on the TM. Not too shabby.
This was the longest bout I've had in ages, probably since the operation. It was very demoralizing at first. Oh, ____, this again, what's the point, etc, etc. It's a relatively harmless but uncomfortable thing which could theoretically wear my heart out a couple of decades or so early, but at the time, it assumed a graver magnitude. I walked up the hill while sinking deeper and yet also while slipping out of my body somehow, floating to the relief of incomplete presence.
And then, at the top of the hill was a clump of vivid red sumac in a sunlit field. Sumac tethers me to familiarity in general, the smell, the look, especially during this fall season otherwise devoid of red leaves. I clung to that red sumac and further pulled myself out of myself in the process. I don't remember being with the dog except that I stopped to let him sniff and let myself stare at the red leaves. He was a very good boy. We stayed on the summit for an indefinite length of time. My state of mind was not very temporal.
Eventually, with an almost audible click, my heart rate went back to normal. We headed down the hill, I broke into a light jog to help clear things, but it was so fatiguing. We walked and jogged--just downhill joggged--home. SVT is perhaps the ultimate cardio workout. The 20-30 minute bouts used to leave me tired for about a week afterward.
However, it seems that I'm stronger now. I was tired the next day and just walked with the dog, but the following day, I felt strong enough to run the 3 mile loop. It was an almost 3 mile loop to be accurate: the last time I ran the 3 mile loop, with my husband and the dog, another pitbull-type dog that is usually tied up ran out to greet us...fortunately in good humour. It was larger than my dog (who is supposedly larger than a 'purebred' pit bull (there is much debate about the breed, or umbrella of closely-related breeds/strains, etc)--its head was proportionally much broader than my dog's. We stopped and let the dogs sniff each other then calmly walked away. There wasn't much else we could do because it ran out so suddenly. It seemed like a pretty chill dog after the initial few seconds, but some dogs eventually take a dislike to each other and so I altered our route.
Friday, I ran for 7 songs on the TM--a tempo run. 24:10, so about 3 miles on the flat.
Saturday, I walked with the dog.
I'm omitting the cross-training workouts I did this week out of laziness; at least I did the workouts! Oh, I should mention the pistol squats I did on Friday, because the delayed muscle soreness was a factor today.
I'd thought about attempting the 8 mile loop again, but it was already too warm (Tuesday was also a warmish day, which could have been a factor). Plan B was a long easy run on the treadmill. I found a video of the 2012 Rotterdam marathon and started jogging.
But my ass hurt too much to go slow. I needed to apply a certain amount of force and/or momentum to push past the discomfort, like one needs to apply a certain amount of force to separate two magnets stuck together. Or a certain amount of force to push a gate open--that's a more appropriate comparison. I pushed the speed control up and found that 6 mph was more comfortable. Breathing was still easy, but there was enough momentum to help.
This really wasn't 6 mph. I've mentioned the stinginess of the FREE treadmill before (I am not ungrateful, just realistic)...it's about ~1 mph in the midrange off, I think, at least in terms of effort because it is also set at a slight incline at its flattest setting. 6.5-6.7 feels like tempo run which would be about 7.5-7.7 on the flat outside. The lack of flat outside adds to the confusion. Really, I cannot tell what I should be running. I should just ditch all numbers and just gauge effort, but I like numbers.
Anyway, I ran for 2 hours. Tiredness emerged quickly and stayed. I kept having to tweak things to avoid points of fatigue. There were a few minutes here and there of relative ease, when balance and positioning were optimal and I recaptured the hip piston action I've been pursuing like a silently fleeing wild turkey blending into the shadowy brush (a friend mentioned turkeys on FB recently, and I've been thinking of them and the way they can melt out of sight). All too soon, however, the turkey was gone and I was edging into inefficiency. But, somehow on a very uniform running surface, I managed to change things up often, and time went by relatively quickly.
For the last half hour, I bumped the speed up to 6.3 mph (~7.3ish) to avoid accumulating discomfort. This strategy worked well the last time I was starting to feel bogged down. 7.3 mph is 8:13/mile, which is a very mechanically comfortable pace for me...it's a bit harder than 9 min/mile, and burns glycogen more quickly, but is nevertheless easier in a way. 8:05-8:15/mile is my happy pace zone, I guess. I was very tired during the last half hour, but being in my happy pace zone helped a lot, as did the timing of the marathon footage. The first woman crossed the finish line at my 2:29, leaving me just a minute to slog through sort of on my own.
This run was a huge confidence booster because it was a test of stamina, which is my weakest point in running. I am not fast, but I do better at the faster shorter workouts, and I develop endurance--long and slow--relatively easy and can coast about for hours in comfort, even beyond the marathon distance, when I'm fit, but I dislike breathing harder for more than a few minutes. My breathing wasn't 'hard' during this run, but it was a steady 4-2 and 2-2 rhythm, which is faster than usual on my long easy runs. It was probably mostly 2-2. The hills here have forced me to accept that for longer periods of time, I guess, and I don't notice it was well. And perhaps the SVT has made me a little bit stronger after all. Maintaining a heart rate in the 228-240 beats/minute range is not something I can usually do; I'm lucky to get much above 200 during the toughest interval workouts. At any rate, moving from 5.7 to 6.0 as a long run pace was a big development.
I signed up for a local (hilly, of course) marathon which happens to be in three weeks. I still have time for a long slow run, either outside or on the TM, and maybe a couple of 8 mile big hill runs. I have not been training very much compared to the past, but in the past few months, I have done a few runs in the 2:30-3 hr range outside, including 2 that were about 3 hrs long (but slow because the temps were 31-35 C, not including humidex), and a 2:50, a 3 hr, and two runs around 2:30 on the TM. Not too shabby.
Monday, October 15, 2012
the garbage got me up
The garbage truck usually comes around 7:30 am on Monday. Yes, we can put out our garbage the night before but it cannot be in cans or bins. The city gives garbage bags free of charge to residents to simplify the process for everyone...including our non-human neighbours.
This week, it seemed to be my turn to wake up early and put the garbage out. We don't have a set rotating schedule. Usually my husband has to go to work early and he puts it out. If he's home, he likes to sleep in and I put it out. If we are both dead to the world, it's not a big deal to skip a week because we usually don't generate much more than a grocery sack of garbage a week. (This might change now that I've retired the compost bin and released the worms). But I woke up at 7 and put out the bags.
Ironically, almost all of our garbage this week was yard waste and was already outside. Neither of us thought to put it out in front yesterday. And, even more sadly, the city doesn't compost and though we figured out ways of diverting cardboard, paper, glass, metal, and organic kitchen waste, we haven't yet figured out where to bring our yard waste.
It was a gorgeous morning. The leaves started turning in our absence: no reds, but plenty of yellows and oranges. It was crisp and cool and dewy. I put the collar and leash on the dog and we walked to the river, a bed of gently rising fog. Enjoyably transported to another, more mysterious place, we meandered along the river and then home.
Then I did zwow #37 and discomfort returned me to the here and now.
This week, it seemed to be my turn to wake up early and put the garbage out. We don't have a set rotating schedule. Usually my husband has to go to work early and he puts it out. If he's home, he likes to sleep in and I put it out. If we are both dead to the world, it's not a big deal to skip a week because we usually don't generate much more than a grocery sack of garbage a week. (This might change now that I've retired the compost bin and released the worms). But I woke up at 7 and put out the bags.
Ironically, almost all of our garbage this week was yard waste and was already outside. Neither of us thought to put it out in front yesterday. And, even more sadly, the city doesn't compost and though we figured out ways of diverting cardboard, paper, glass, metal, and organic kitchen waste, we haven't yet figured out where to bring our yard waste.
It was a gorgeous morning. The leaves started turning in our absence: no reds, but plenty of yellows and oranges. It was crisp and cool and dewy. I put the collar and leash on the dog and we walked to the river, a bed of gently rising fog. Enjoyably transported to another, more mysterious place, we meandered along the river and then home.
Then I did zwow #37 and discomfort returned me to the here and now.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
new week, new state, new beach
Last Sunday, I didn't do the 8 mile loop as planned. I watched the 2012 Chicago marathon and jogged on the treadmill for 2:15 then tacked on a 20 minute tempo run. My neck was fine.
The Chicago marathon had an exciting close finish for both the men and the women--the women's finish was pretty much a photo finish.
We flew on Sunday (not on our feet, alas).
Monday-Tues, house-hunting days, and I think they will prove to be fruitful...meanwhile, we hit the beach after that. A new beach for both of us, which was exciting. The OBX offers a wide selection.
Wednesday, 20 minute beach run. I have fallen very out of shape for barefoot beach running, but this beach was a suitable reintroduction: sand relatively firm and flat mid-low tide.
Thursday, 60 minute beach run with my husband. My calves felt pretty torn up after the previous day's attempt, but they obligingly loosened up and yielded a really relaxing and easy run. Maybe eating a bunch of local seafood helped speed recovery. This was my first trip to the South since d
Friday and Saturday, travel days.
Sunday, today, back home on the hills, 4 miles with my husband and the dog. It was relaxing for me (a relaxed tempo effort to be perfectly honest, I suppose: I'm breathing faster than on a true easy run but I forget that I'm breathing faster) but the air wasn't the best and my husband felt that his breathing was constrained. The weather was otherwise wonderful, and we got most of our fall yardwork done afterward.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
this week
It flew and crawled by:
zwow 12
zwow 33 (but just two rounds)
20 minutes tempo run
3 mile run outside
And a fair bit of walking.
I'd hoped to tackle the 8 mile loop this week, but it didn't happen. My neck didn't allow outside running until Wednesday, when I ran the 3 mile loop to test it out (successfully!) Thursday was simply lost...I slept in too late. The sleep in was a signal, perhaps, but I am puzzled. Friday and Saturday, my guts periodically cried some sort of gluten affront, and yet I haven't eaten anything suspicious unless the muscle relaxants have gluten in them, and I didn't take them every day.
Meanwhile, I'm missing the start of fall! The temps are brisk. The heaters kicked on at work and at home. I am rather fond of the juxtaposition of the smell of crisp dead leaves outside and the smell of burning dust inside.
Maybe I will get the run in before we leave tomorrow. That might require packing tonight...I could lay out some running clothes, I suppose. We'll be returning to summer, not horrible swelter deep summer, but the first few days in the mid 20s C when the sun hits soft green lawns and you do likewise.
zwow 12
zwow 33 (but just two rounds)
20 minutes tempo run
3 mile run outside
And a fair bit of walking.
I'd hoped to tackle the 8 mile loop this week, but it didn't happen. My neck didn't allow outside running until Wednesday, when I ran the 3 mile loop to test it out (successfully!) Thursday was simply lost...I slept in too late. The sleep in was a signal, perhaps, but I am puzzled. Friday and Saturday, my guts periodically cried some sort of gluten affront, and yet I haven't eaten anything suspicious unless the muscle relaxants have gluten in them, and I didn't take them every day.
Meanwhile, I'm missing the start of fall! The temps are brisk. The heaters kicked on at work and at home. I am rather fond of the juxtaposition of the smell of crisp dead leaves outside and the smell of burning dust inside.
Maybe I will get the run in before we leave tomorrow. That might require packing tonight...I could lay out some running clothes, I suppose. We'll be returning to summer, not horrible swelter deep summer, but the first few days in the mid 20s C when the sun hits soft green lawns and you do likewise.
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