not a run day

But I felt like it. 30 minute jog.

turkey

It was US Thanksgiving this past Thursday and we celebrated here, hence, leftovers. :D I actually feel a touch paleolithic because this is my third day of eating just one meal, but one really substantial meaty meal, per day. (plus snacks, mainly clementines)

Thurday: it was cold so I jogged for a half hour continuously. It amazes me that I was so concerned about a half hour just a week or so before, but jogging for a half hour and running for a half hour are different--thank goodness I can jog now!

Friday: rest day.

Saturday: my husband joined us and we jogged for a half hour and then I did strides and resistance exercises--I think I was supposed to jog for 6 minutes after the strides but I forgot that until now. But what are six minutes compared to the important aspects? The snow was beautiful, the weather was beautiful, just below the point where stuff gets melted and gross, but not too cold, and I was full of protein. And biomechanics were really efficient; after so many rusted iron days, I really appreciated being titanium today. It was still an easy run, which made it lovelier. I don't like breathing hard for more than a few minutes at a time.

We went about 3.4 miles. I think my new years resolution will be to return to Garmin--I'll probably resume it in a couple of weeks when I resume tempo portions, actually.

leftover megaddarah

Breakfast of emperors! lol

Today was 3X 10 minutes with 5 strides in between. This was tougher than I thought it would be--I tried to keep the strides light, but I hadn't slept well so didn't fee 'light' at all. And couldn't fully recover between strides because it felt too cold to hang around that long.

The dog really liked the strides, though!

I'm supposed to do the same workout tomorrow but since I'll be repeating this week two more times, I figure I'll omit the strides tomorrow.

even longer run!

I got bored and decided to take things to the next level. I have been following Jack Daniels' white plan (pretty much a learn to run thing) and had spent three weeks on the third stage and was going to stay there this week too.

Three factors changed my mind:

I jogged for 27 minutes on Saturday.
I jogged, period! Jogging for 30 minutes is less daunting than running.
It was icy this morning. It's easier to run than walk on ice.

So I went to the next level and we kept going. 30 minutes, then 6 strides, then 6 minutes jogging for a cool-down. it went well! It always amazes me, though, that what I think is a 'flat' route definitely isn't flat when there's a bit of ice on it. Fortunately, there was a mostly clear section long enough for strides; I never noticed until today that that section isn't exactly level, but good enough.

It feels great to coast again.

I forgot to add that the strides worked much better than I'd imagined. I had my dog with me but he matched my pace well and enjoyed the faster pace. It was exciting for him but he stayed at my side--but there were zoomies when we got home :)

long run!

I was voluteering for a race and got up a bit later than planned. But I still wanted to run with the dog before. instead of the planned workout, running 20 minutes, walking 5, and running 10, I decided to run for 25 minutes straight. Running 30 minutes straight, which I will do next weekend or soon after, is a little intimidating stepping up from 20 minutes. 25 minutes, not so much.

And a wonderful thing happened: I jogged. I was able to jog. I figure it was about 9 minutes/mile. I didn't consciously slow down, I just kept thinking, oh, 25 minutes, that's going to be hard, not sure how it'll go, etc, and my body retrenched and picked that ideal pace I've been missing this past while.

So, see, pessimism works sometimes!!

And, actually, I lost track of time and jogged for 27:16 and I could have kept going.

It feels good to be looking forward to that 30 minute run instead of wondering if I could actually manage it. I just have to scare myself beforehand.

It'll be interesting to see if I'll go back to my usual pace.

chili

The dog and I walked this morning, my left knee is feeling weird but that's because I've restarted squats and lunges, but stretching, not so much, but it's better today after tackling some quad knots yesterday evening, etc...

And I'm making chili this afternoon for a local race tomorrow. I guess I'm about halfway through prep-wise, but there still remains a heck of a simmer.

There is no recipe. There are umpteen clean spoons and the suitable median between courage and concern. I suspect that I will, as usual, be led too far into courage by an increasingly numbed mouth, and thus will have to make a late-evening run for more tomato sauce and sweet peppers.

And then there is the quality of the heat, but this is readily solved: I adore the smoky, slightly delayed gentle warmth of chipotle. That's my key note, as they say in the biz.

This time, this will be slightly and carefully augmented by a sharper, stronger and longer heat from another type of pepper. I went to the farmers' market last weekend expecting to buy a lot of peppers, but there weren't any. Finally, something caught my eye: small baskets of gnarled thin long peppers. They were different colours (yellow, red, green) but the same shape. I asked the farmer if they were hot and she said yes.

In the past, I have subsequently asked other farmers "Like jalapenos?" "Oh, no, nothing like that."

It's a trick question. Jalapenos can have a good kick and are but are still manageable on their own. I enjoy mild peppers, but sometimes I need something more.

This time, I didn't inquire further. I had a good feeling about them. I told her I wanted to buy a box because I needed to make chili.

"You're not going to use all of them?" she asked, shocked.

"Oh, no! Two or three."

"Be sure to taste test." She looked me in the eye. "They are hot."

After that, I believed her. I wore a plastic bag on my non-knife hand when I cut them into thin slices, and then I decided to try a slice. This was a very small amount but I'm still feeling the effect 20 minutes later. It's now a rather soothing warmth in the abdominal region, and a lingering, less pleasant laryngitis. It also made my nose run briefly a few minutes ago. I have blocked out memories of the initial sensation. It felt hotter than Southeast Asian peppers, but I probably ate more of this one.

I forgot to ask her what they are. They look like cayenne.

smoothie

I will restore the count...someday. after lab reports are done, I guess.
4X 8 min today. I think I'm finally finding that comfortable and (slightly) slower pace.

? megaddarah

Today was the same as yesterday, 3X 10 min, except that I took 2 min for the first recovery period and 1 min for the second because 2 minutes felt too long. Stuff froze up. The first interval was too fast--I kept slowing down and speeding up again. After two minutes of walking, my legs got logey and I settled into a slower pace. It seemed ok. I'm not quite used to it, but it feels easier and it might possibly work for 30 whole minutes. lol

pace (as best as I can tell):

8:00/mile
8:12/mile
8:12/mile

Once again, it felt like a blah run, but endorphins kicked in afterward and I was quite hyper the rest of the day.

? homemade pumpkin poppyseed muffin

Sat: long run, 20 minutes! (and then an additional ten after a short walk)...it went well. My husband came with us and he held the leash so I was able to relax my shoulders more. This is something I've been working on: letting my shoulders relax/drop a fraction with each exhale. Otherwise I start to get stiff holding them up.

Sun: walk

Mon: 3 X 10 min again, with two minute breaks in between. I was taking just 1 minute, and then read that it should have been 3 minutes. Compromise is so simple when it's purely quantitative! Anyway, I hope to repeat this workout tomorrow, and also do resistance exercises afterward. I didn't do them today because I'm still kind of sore, partly from all the lunges and squats I did on Saturday. Wasn't the best timing but I really craved them.

I feel a lot better than I did last week! I will do the same workouts, but with an extra run, this week, culminating in the long run of 20 minutes (lol) and I might move to the next level of the program the week after that. I still have to decide.

Apart from relaxing my shoulders, I also concentrated on finding a better pace in prep for that next level: 30 min run. I have to slow down a bit, which I did today without aggravating my foot, and it wasn't a huge change but it was still surprisingly blah, easy without being relaxing. It was probably an off day; it wasn't like I was full of energy and really reining it in.

? lots of green tea

I didn't run on Wed either--my foot felt better but general inflammation felt worse.

4X 8 min on Thurs...this was a tough run, an unforgiving balance between running fast enough to favour my foot, and slow enough to favour muscle fatigue and abdominal discomfort (the wheat might have done some intestinal damage). The last repeat suddenly got a lot harder near the end. the wall? lol I didn't do any resistance exercises afterward. Will wait until I feel back to normal. It's been hard sleeping the past few nights, but we've adjusted the mattress and hopefully I'll be fine tonight.

I didn't run today.

fortunately, my foot seems to be fine, and everything else is recovering.

Tomorrow, if all goes well, a long run of 20 min!

? grapefruit

No run today, I'm too sore. Too much inflammation...even my foot got sore again, but this happened during my exam, go figure. Hopefully I can run tomorrow.

Fortunately, I don't seem to have much or any muscular weakness this time round.
Mentally, I'm a bit out there (funny how something so pedestrian as wheat has such a strong effect), but I managed to pull it together in time for my exam, I think, I hope. Before the exam, after another unscheduled nap, I stood in front of the fridge and deliberated. What would restore acuity and, more importantly, unlock the trove of hours and hours of studying? Grapefruit.

? fruit smoothie

I had another wheat mishap this weekend; it was a culmination of a few errors. We went to the wine and food show and I asked the vendors about wheat but I didn't think to ask if there was wheat in cheese. Beer-washed. And then there was a bit of a wafer in a chocolate...but I felt fine until yesterday, when I ate some already tried-and-true rice crackers. They now 'possibly contain wheat'; they definitely contain wheat. Why do rice cracker manufacturers do this? Do they not realize that some people eat them because regular crackers have wheat? This is the second brand that has turned on me. I fell asleep for an hour soon after eating the crackers, felt groggy for the rest of the evening, and now I have the usual aches. I guess I'll find out if I have the mind fog too: my organic chemistry final exam is tonight. timing bad!

Anyway, I wanted to run.
3X 10 minutes again. I was too sore to try to find that comfortable pace again and I started off too fast, I think, but it went better than I'd expected. Tomorrow, I'll do the same thing, and then a rest day. My first 10 minute interval was just a week ago, and now I'm doing three of them in a row...very promising!

?? chocolate cake again

Long run today! 20 minutes, and then another 10. lol
My concerns: running twice as long as before, running out of steam and having to walk, and running too slowly and hurting my foot.

Fortunately, my foot is very good at giving feedback. I started off slowly and it started to ache; a change had to be made quickly. I didn't quite hit upon the magic pace I've been envisioning, but a compromise of sorts ensued. I ran and when I noticed that my breathing was becoming a bit pushed, I dropped back a bit and let things relax. It was just a fraction but it made all the difference, a moment or two of feeling like I wasn't actually running. I miss this sensation, I used to have it all the time on my easy runs after coasting for a while in some other zone and then coming back with a ridiculous realization "I have actually been running all this time!" There, perhaps, was the magic pace, but I couldn't quite lock into it. Not quite there yet!

However, it was a much nicer run than I'd feared. I extended it by 40 seconds to get to a bridge (because I like getting to stuff). 2.58 miles in 20:40. My ten minute section was 1.24 miles and it felt more consistent. I wasn't tinkering, I was just coasting. Maybe it's time for the Garmin to come out because I seem to be craving numbers these days, but maybe that's because I still have to watch my watch, but what I really want is to float over miles and come home after an hour or so of head-clearing.

It'll be interesting to see how my easy run feeling develops. I will be doing pretty much the same workouts next week, and perhaps the week after that too, will see.

day? smoothie and chocolate cake

And, yes, that was breakfast!

This morning, we did 4X 8 min, with one minute rest. It was poorly paced; I went too fast. I still can't jog, and I think that I've gotten fit enough that I could find a pace that is comfortable both aerobically and mechanically, but I've also gotten used to a certain level of effort and I keep pushing. Maybe I've even come to like it. There's a certain beguiling rhythm that spurs me on, thump thump, swish, swish, clickety-clickety-clickety (that's the dog). But it still tires me out.

Anyway, we did an out and back that I know really well, plus there's mapmyrun, so I was able to figure out how fast I went:

7:37/mile (I got to the mile point at 7:33, and probably slowed down out of unease)
7:41/mile
8:00/mile
7:59/mile

I'm thinking that maybe I should use the Garmin to help me find a more suitable pace for longer runs. 8:10-8:15 used to feel really good--it was below tempo effort so nice aerobically, but it was also fast enough to feel light and efficient.

Tomorrow, if I remember the plan correctly, I'm supposed to do 20 minutes of running, five minutes of walking, and another 10 minutes of running. I can't remember the last time I ran 20 minutes without stopping! I definitely don't need to pop off a 7:33 mile to start with.

day? rice/lentil + lamb/pepper stirfry leftover

We ran 3 X 10 minutes with 2 minutes walking break. It was supposed to be two but it was too cold early in the morning to walk that long. it went really well! We even ran up the locks hill again--I expanded my loop but with the added third repeat, it still wasn't long enough. My foot felt fine so I guess laziness is the only remaining issue.

Tomorrow will definitely be a rest day.

day? lentil and carrot soup

The dog and I walked about 40 minutes with my husband this morning, and then the dog and I ran. 2 X 10 min, 3 min recovery. Lately, I've been feeling a bit jaded about my running plans; though things have been going well, I didn't feel like I was going in the right direction. I needed a change. Last night, I flipped through a Daniels book, the newer one, and looked at his white plan or whatever it's called--it's the beginner runner plan. I figured I was almost at the 3rd level, which mainly consists of 3X 10 min one or two days, and 4X 8 min the other day, and possibly something else on the weekend (I forget); anyway, I decided to try 2X 10 min this week and hopefully do the full plan the following two weeks. Will see!

My main goal was to try to find a pace that was fast enough so that my foot didn't hurt, but less intense, more sustainable. I wanted to keep to 4-2 breathing...that didn't quite work because there were inclines and I felt that I couldn't slow down on those, but I was almost in a comfortable aerobic zone. My foot felt fine until I ran out of road, so to speak: I got to the locks. IT's a pretty steep hill there and I could have kept my heart rate up by walking briskly, but pride prevailed and I ran and eventually I got slower and my foot started to complain. It's a steep enough hill that I don't think my heels touch it, which isn't good for my foot either. Next time, I'll expand my loop. I hadn't realized that it wouldn't be enough. Mapmyrun puts my 10 minute intervals at 1.24 and 1.21 miles. I'm trying not to care how far I go, but I am curious for more than planning reasons. I'm going to find my comfortable pace by feel, and maybe once that gets sorted out, I'll indulge my stats cravings with Garmin. Maybe next year.

Anyway, it went well, I think! First time in a while running up and down inclines. I'll see if I do the same sort of workout tomorrow, or take a rest.

As for cross-training, I'm doing 55 situps after runs, and I'm getting back into morning yoga and pushups.

Stairs? I got sick of them, I guess.