It was muggy and already 25 C early this morning, but the temperature was forecasted to drop, and it did, but not enough. I did not do the tough 8 mile loop. Instead the dog and I jogged/okmostlywalked 1.5 miles while I deliberated: should I take advantage of the overcast weather, which would make the dog's participation easier although he would be miserable in the rain and there was a chance of rain, OR should I trust in the forecasted low nighttime temperature and have a cooler and less humid but sunnier run tomorrow morning? It is probably a more stunning route in the sun. The hill is tough and I need something to look forward to at the top. A good view goes a long way.
Hopefully we get some thunderstorms tonight to clear the air a bit. I jogged 6 miles on the treadmill and felt a little congested at first, but the feeling subsided as I got distracted by other considerations. Lately, I have been equating the treadmill to a laboratory: conditions are controlled, which allows me to delve into matters underlying changes in elevation/pace/footing. I was trying to loosen up some parts, particularly my quads, while engaging others more, particularly my hip flexors and parts of my glutes; my ultimate goal was, as always, spurred by my laziness: to reduce strain and effort. The stretch from 20ish minutes to 30ish minutes felt especially efficient. For a couple of minutes, I actually felt a different downward stroke from my hips--this is a simplification of myriad minute processes, but they had all coalesced into an overall sensation of one side tipping downward and then airily floating upward, and then the other side tipping downward and airily floating upward, etc. I didn't feel anything else going on, just the overall motion governing everything else going on below. So efficient! So fleeting!
The usual sloppiness crept back and I spent the rest of the run trying to ease this or that, but it was easy breathing and effort throughout at 5.7-5.8 mph. My easy runs will stay at this pace for a while, I think. There's still more to learn from it.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Fall temps!
Well, highs in the mid 20s C and good cloud cover have lent a nice chill to the wind, and it feels like fall. My favourite season (when not trumped by a superior winter)! Fall reintroduces a poignant melancholy: I reconnect with my school-age self and my school-age fears and my school age hopes. Will something amazing happen this year, or something dreadful or, more likely, more of the small same stuff, over and over again? I view my former younger selves and their often puny concerns with amused pity, and yet we still share the same depth of expectation once summer ends and the distance between us narrows. The cool weather comes, trailing the same something. Unfortunately, as seen below, this generates some reflection.
Now, this is probably just a cool snap and we will revert to the summer weather more usual for this time of the year, but my body as well as my psyche has seized the change. I'd written earlier about doing another diet detox last week, or maybe the week before...turns out I needed a shift in the weather to get motivated enough to give up dairy, refined sugar and carbs, and fermented things. I eased into this two days ago. Usually this diet lasts for ten days, but I'm aiming for 5 and 5, with a cheat day or two in between. This weekend is a long weekend for me; I'd booked the time off well before I knew how long the heatwave would last, how it would affect me, and when it would end. Good timing, really! Almost! I would like to have at least one fancy meal during this long weekend, probably involving a drink or two.
I didn't buy a cleanse kit this time because I can't get the Canadian one I'd used back home, and I didn't like the last one I used here...after spending about an hour online reading reviews and whatnot, I got fed up with picking out all the weight-loss options (not my focus) or the blast-guts-clean options (definitely not my focus), and I ordered some liver and kidney detox pills instead. Traditional stuff like milk thistle and that sort of thing. I'm also taking more fibre, some chlorella and spirulina, and generally drinking more water and continuing to eat fresh fruits, vegs, and legumes. This isn't necessarily going to be a vegetarian diet detox, mainly because we have some good grass-fed and organic meat in the freezer, and my new iron/protein pills are basically condensed liver, but it will be mostly vegetarian, like we usually eat.
Anyway, my new regimen seems to be working because stuff is stirred up and I'm congested and sleepy--a good sign. One of these days, I really ought to dig into the biochemistry of this sort of thing, is detoxing really bogus, or what is going on? but usually I feel like crap for the first few days, and then I start to feel a lot better. It feels like toxins are dredged out of secluded corners, set free to run rampant for a few days, then flushed out. I am really really hoping that these will include whatever is still allowing the chigger bites I acquired at least three weeks ago (has it been four already?) to itch. Some of them have healed, and I don't look like I have a gross disease so much as though I look like I'm recovering from a gross disease, but some of the spots still itch at random and inopportune times. For example, after a whole day spent oblivious of my left thigh, I crawl into bed and it suddenly turns to prickly fire. Or, I get into gloves, mask, booties, and gown at work and I start handling some sort of biohazardous thing that used to be inside some sick person, and then my right food begs, pleads, screams to be scratched. My plan is to run the tough 8-mile loop on Thursday and then, if possible, do a zwow workout or something to get even more sweaty, and then sit in a hot bath and sweat even more out while I scrub off at least the outermost layer of epidermis. At times like these, I really miss the scratchy Korean sauna mitts designed for this purpose.
Meanwhile, I have been WASTING the really nice weather! Yesterday, I jogged 1.5 miles with the dog. Today, I slept in late--I think I slept close to 11 hours--and after seriously contemplating avoiding all exercise, I did zwow #12 during which I included some shoulder weight exercises and deadlifts. Oh, well, creatures generally don't exert themselves unnecessarily while shedding.
Meanwhile, I have been reading Meb Keflezighi's book:
http://www.amazon.com/Meb-Keflezighi/e/B00419KI0I
This guy has surprised me, and plenty of others--he doesn't have the best PBs of the field, and he's shown up to races not in the best form, but he fights so hard and ends placing so much better than expected. He won the NYC marathon in 2009 or so, he won the Olympic trials, and he's placed well in other races, and he was 4th in the Olympic marathon. He wasn't the American favourite, he was running against 3 Kenyans and 3 Ethiopians, and others with faster personal bests, but he moved up from the second chase pack, through the first chase pack which by then had splintered, from 19th or so at halfway to fourth.
He had won the silver Olympic medal in 2004 and yet was not among the runners introduced before this year's race, even though he was the only prior medalist in the field. He used the snub as fuel.
!!!
He mentioned the book in post-race interviews and it was the first time I'd heard of it.
Now, this is probably just a cool snap and we will revert to the summer weather more usual for this time of the year, but my body as well as my psyche has seized the change. I'd written earlier about doing another diet detox last week, or maybe the week before...turns out I needed a shift in the weather to get motivated enough to give up dairy, refined sugar and carbs, and fermented things. I eased into this two days ago. Usually this diet lasts for ten days, but I'm aiming for 5 and 5, with a cheat day or two in between. This weekend is a long weekend for me; I'd booked the time off well before I knew how long the heatwave would last, how it would affect me, and when it would end. Good timing, really! Almost! I would like to have at least one fancy meal during this long weekend, probably involving a drink or two.
I didn't buy a cleanse kit this time because I can't get the Canadian one I'd used back home, and I didn't like the last one I used here...after spending about an hour online reading reviews and whatnot, I got fed up with picking out all the weight-loss options (not my focus) or the blast-guts-clean options (definitely not my focus), and I ordered some liver and kidney detox pills instead. Traditional stuff like milk thistle and that sort of thing. I'm also taking more fibre, some chlorella and spirulina, and generally drinking more water and continuing to eat fresh fruits, vegs, and legumes. This isn't necessarily going to be a vegetarian diet detox, mainly because we have some good grass-fed and organic meat in the freezer, and my new iron/protein pills are basically condensed liver, but it will be mostly vegetarian, like we usually eat.
Anyway, my new regimen seems to be working because stuff is stirred up and I'm congested and sleepy--a good sign. One of these days, I really ought to dig into the biochemistry of this sort of thing, is detoxing really bogus, or what is going on? but usually I feel like crap for the first few days, and then I start to feel a lot better. It feels like toxins are dredged out of secluded corners, set free to run rampant for a few days, then flushed out. I am really really hoping that these will include whatever is still allowing the chigger bites I acquired at least three weeks ago (has it been four already?) to itch. Some of them have healed, and I don't look like I have a gross disease so much as though I look like I'm recovering from a gross disease, but some of the spots still itch at random and inopportune times. For example, after a whole day spent oblivious of my left thigh, I crawl into bed and it suddenly turns to prickly fire. Or, I get into gloves, mask, booties, and gown at work and I start handling some sort of biohazardous thing that used to be inside some sick person, and then my right food begs, pleads, screams to be scratched. My plan is to run the tough 8-mile loop on Thursday and then, if possible, do a zwow workout or something to get even more sweaty, and then sit in a hot bath and sweat even more out while I scrub off at least the outermost layer of epidermis. At times like these, I really miss the scratchy Korean sauna mitts designed for this purpose.
Meanwhile, I have been WASTING the really nice weather! Yesterday, I jogged 1.5 miles with the dog. Today, I slept in late--I think I slept close to 11 hours--and after seriously contemplating avoiding all exercise, I did zwow #12 during which I included some shoulder weight exercises and deadlifts. Oh, well, creatures generally don't exert themselves unnecessarily while shedding.
Meanwhile, I have been reading Meb Keflezighi's book:
http://www.amazon.com/Meb-Keflezighi/e/B00419KI0I
This guy has surprised me, and plenty of others--he doesn't have the best PBs of the field, and he's shown up to races not in the best form, but he fights so hard and ends placing so much better than expected. He won the NYC marathon in 2009 or so, he won the Olympic trials, and he's placed well in other races, and he was 4th in the Olympic marathon. He wasn't the American favourite, he was running against 3 Kenyans and 3 Ethiopians, and others with faster personal bests, but he moved up from the second chase pack, through the first chase pack which by then had splintered, from 19th or so at halfway to fourth.
He had won the silver Olympic medal in 2004 and yet was not among the runners introduced before this year's race, even though he was the only prior medalist in the field. He used the snub as fuel.
!!!
He mentioned the book in post-race interviews and it was the first time I'd heard of it.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
No more Olympics
So sad! They ended with a good bang though, a very thrilling marathon.
1.5 miles yesterday with the dog, and 6 miles today on the treadmill in about 61 minutes. We slept in too late for a long run--the temps rose to 35 C or so--and so I decided to run 8 miles on the treadmill, but the air was bad. After twenty minutes, I decided to aim for 6 instead; after forty minutes, I decided to run the remainder as a tempo run. I think the effort was actually below tempo effort although I chose the same tempo pace as before. The poor air quality and the effect it had on my breathing dissuaded me from trying out a faster pace.
1.5 miles yesterday with the dog, and 6 miles today on the treadmill in about 61 minutes. We slept in too late for a long run--the temps rose to 35 C or so--and so I decided to run 8 miles on the treadmill, but the air was bad. After twenty minutes, I decided to aim for 6 instead; after forty minutes, I decided to run the remainder as a tempo run. I think the effort was actually below tempo effort although I chose the same tempo pace as before. The poor air quality and the effect it had on my breathing dissuaded me from trying out a faster pace.
Friday, August 10, 2012
Finished!
My workouts for the week are done; whatever I do tomorrow will be a bonus.
Today was another cool morning, but I decided not to run with my dog because he'll need a bit of time to toughen up his paws; we'll run something tomorrow. So, it was the treadmill this morning. and I decided to get the 75-80ish minute run of the week out of the way. I haven't done a tempo workout this week, but the hilly run yesterday--or almost any steady run outside here--is pretty much a tempo run because the hills elevate heart rate and breathing rate solidly.
I was groggy again this morning, like every morning. However, I've felt like I've turned a corner and started recovering this week. The temperatures have dropped and we've been able to leave windows open for fresh air, plus I had a trainee at work for the last two weeks who has done some of the more strenuous stuff--hey, he's the one who has to develop endurance, not me! and I have been taking more bio-available iron/protein pills. My easy treadmill pace is now 5.5-5.6 mph--it's funny how drastically 5.7 mph feels like a different gear. I'm not pushing the pace on my easy runs because that's not the point, but now and then I try a slightly faster pace and test if it still allows me to relax. Maybe by next month, 5.7 will feel easy.
Anyway, this morning, I took a while to wake up, but only about ten minutes or so to warm up, and I ran without issues until after an hour when I started getting a strange slow spasm in my left quad which momentarily threw my left knee out of alignment. I tried to relax the offending area, and after several repetitions, the spasm went away, and I was able to complete the run.
And I have become stronger. I did zwow #5 today, including the burpees that I'd forgotten last time, and I did over 4 sets. When I started this workout, I was barely completing 3 in time. It was a big push today, and I'm feeling pretty tired now, even post-nap!
More importantly, I can lift things up and put them down more easily. There is a particular ortho kit at work that weighs at least 50 pounds, and lifting it is often not a clean or simple motion because the handles are on the short sides and it doesn't fit in the washer/autoclave sideways and the autoclave liner is inches away and scalding hot, etc, etc...but, yesterday, I was managing it fine. When I first started working there, I could barely lift it off a table.
Thursday, August 9, 2012
busted!
But not me, but the heat! We had a short but violent storm last night--incidentally, my workplace has a pretty hefty generator--and it was only 20 C when I woke up this morning. That's cooler than our house, even! I decided to tackle the three mile loop we used to do, but I'd forgotten part of the route and went past a turn, and then we went down to the creek: total run was 4.6 miles.
The dog hasn't gained much, if any, weight, but he is out of shape. The route has a series of 5 hills, and others besides, and gets harder and harder. His pee break requests became more and more frequent. Fortunately, he tends to regain fitness surprisingly quickly. Since the highs for the rest of the week should be only 30 (!!!), I'll be able to take him out more often in the near future.
Then I did zwow 28 again. It didn't feel any easier today.
The dog hasn't gained much, if any, weight, but he is out of shape. The route has a series of 5 hills, and others besides, and gets harder and harder. His pee break requests became more and more frequent. Fortunately, he tends to regain fitness surprisingly quickly. Since the highs for the rest of the week should be only 30 (!!!), I'll be able to take him out more often in the near future.
Then I did zwow 28 again. It didn't feel any easier today.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Caves and underground city
I recently found out that there is a cave system and underground city here. !!!
I have been surfing for distractions because our next posting will be, uh. Once again, we'll be shipped to a dumpy little town south of the Mason-Dixon line, but not south enough for citrus orchards or local tropical fruit or sarongs or beach combing or whatnot. C'mon! Give me at least a little something to work with! However, I have honed a pretty good coping strategy during past similar postings: get leaner and meaner. Last two times, I was lucky enough to live close to a forest with trails--admittedly, the second was more of a semi-abandoned army training area, but it worked.
Anyway~
Monday: nothing
Tuesday: 1.5 miles with the dog outside!!! Yes, the mornings are slowly becoming reasonable!! and Zwow #1, but just 2 rounds out of 3.
Today: I hr, 5.6 miles.
I have been surfing for distractions because our next posting will be, uh. Once again, we'll be shipped to a dumpy little town south of the Mason-Dixon line, but not south enough for citrus orchards or local tropical fruit or sarongs or beach combing or whatnot. C'mon! Give me at least a little something to work with! However, I have honed a pretty good coping strategy during past similar postings: get leaner and meaner. Last two times, I was lucky enough to live close to a forest with trails--admittedly, the second was more of a semi-abandoned army training area, but it worked.
Anyway~
Monday: nothing
Tuesday: 1.5 miles with the dog outside!!! Yes, the mornings are slowly becoming reasonable!! and Zwow #1, but just 2 rounds out of 3.
Today: I hr, 5.6 miles.
Sunday, August 5, 2012
good temps, bad air
Today's promise of being cooler than usual held firm, so we slept in and started running at about noon. Only 29 C and not humid! It got up to only 31 C during our run and there were some portions that were truly comfortable. Alas, the air was dirty today and that caught up to me. The last forty minutes of the run were miserable. My breathing was messed up. I kept it to an easy rate, and by this point we were walking up the steep hills, but my lungs felt raw and compressed, grasping for shallow and quick panic, and I couldn't make things easy, but I managed to stay calm. We stopped at a shaded spigot with about twenty minutes left to go, and I drenched myself in water and got my heart rate down to a more reasonable tempo. We still had a few uphills ahead of us, but we walked up the steepest one and then, soon after, it was a nice downhill coast, and then a walk home.
Total: 18.8 miles. I'm counting the walk. That air was nasty. Maybe it was like breathing through a dusty sock while wearing a corset, something which I won't be trying for confirmation's sake. But, yeah, not a picnic.
Tomorrow, we'll find out our next posting. I think I've held myself together pretty well over the last couple of months of heightened uncertainty.
Total: 18.8 miles. I'm counting the walk. That air was nasty. Maybe it was like breathing through a dusty sock while wearing a corset, something which I won't be trying for confirmation's sake. But, yeah, not a picnic.
Tomorrow, we'll find out our next posting. I think I've held myself together pretty well over the last couple of months of heightened uncertainty.
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