Week 12, Sunday - Like a Tank

I'm incredibly proud of myself for going on a short run yesterday after working all night and getting paltry sleep afterward. I went over to the track at the high school and ran about a mile and half. It was only about half of what I wanted to do, and I did take a couple of short walking breaks but, considering the hiatus and circumstances, I was glad I even got there. The track was amazingly springy. It was a wonderful surface to run on though I found the circling a bit repetitive.

I find that on the treadmill, I can tune out of my surroundings and sink into the feelings of running. I don't need to look at my feet and I don't get distracted by anything in the room. Outside, I have a nasty streak of ADD. On the trail, my eyes follow cardinals, look at the ground, turn to make sure no one is following me, watch the backyard gardeners, judge how far I am from the next person, check my feet again. On the track, I found myself constantly looking to see where and how I was stepping, trying to dodge goose poo, wondering if I could see if I was heel landing or landing mid-foot, checking to make sure I wasn't heading out of my little path and so on. At this point, as much as I love the breeze and freedom of running outside, it's really nice to tune out and feel faster inside.

The need to feel faster is an issue for me. I know I'm not competing with anyone (hell, right now my biggest competition is the desire to sit on my ass). On the treadmill, I can see actual numbers and push myself to go a bit faster while knowing just about how far I can go before something starts to hurt. Nothing around me moves and so I don't have any concept of how fast things should move at 5mph, faster or slower. Outside I feel like a snail. The fact that things move by so slowly is an insult. I want to go faster but don't feel like I can. It's the most frustrating aspect of switching to running outside. To top it all off, moving so slowly makes me feel like a lumbering tank. I see other runners and they look strong and fleet and I feel like I could topple and roll at any second.

Best news? My shins didn't hurt. And I feel good - better than I have in a couple of weeks.


1.5 miles outside on track

Week 11, Saturday - Tomorrow

I've been relying far too much on tomorrow lately. But I plan to run at the high school track tomorrow, something I've been meaning to do for awhile. I'd like to see how it feels to run on a track as opposed to the treadmill or on the asphalt on the trail. My biggest hurdles are my midnight to 8 shifts tonight (this morning?) and tomorrow. I always struggle to get my body going after a schedule change like that. To be honest, I haven't managed it yet.

There's always a first time though, right?

Week Nine, Monday - Heart Rate

I've read some confusing articles lately about heart rate and anaerobic and lactate thresholds. I was surprised to find I was so uninformed, since I try to understand the basics of anything I'm doing to my body. I try to stay at 75%-80% of my max heart rate for a good portion of my workout and I can do so easily, returning to a resting heart rate within minutes of slowing and stopping. It's much harder for me to stay at 60% - 70%, since I tend to drop right back into resting at the slightest hint of a slower stride. Logically, I know that working out at a higher intensity burns more calories (let's face it, this is my principal motivation for exercise), but it seems that in the past week I've seen cautionary notes in more than a few places warning that staying at 80% will burn blood sugar and make the heart more efficient but that you've got to stay lower to burn body fat. And, as usual, I don't seem to have a gear between go hard and go home. I can't seem to find a conclusive answer, only experts that fall into advocates of a fat burning zone and scoffers at said zone. I try to convince myself that my underlying philosophy is the only one I need to worry about - the activity is what's important; doing something is better than doing nothing - but my tendency to do everything as efficiently as possible makes me wish I had a bottom line/final answer/certainty. You can tell I'm not the most easygoing sort, can't you?

In other news, don't take up shift work. It makes running much harder than it needs to be.

Week Eight , Monday - Cramps and Chinese

Although I planned to run outside today and inside tomorrow, the weather is supposed to be beautiful tomorrow and not so today. In fact, it's cloudy and green outside. I enjoy that I can change my schedule and run outside when I know I'll be happy, instead of having to hold myself to staying in when it's nice out - my number one reason for procrastination so far. This run was particularly hard (thus the breaks) and I'm not sure why. I felt my feet go half numb in minutes and they stayed that way through the whole run. My shins ached, I had cramps in my side, and I felt like I was lumbering. Of course, I attribute this to some yummy Chinese tofu from last night and for lunch (pre run) today. I obviously didn't drink enough water or give it enough digestion time. On the other hand, I shouldn't be eating Chinese at all...it's just that it's soooo good.

I kept my heart rate well into the zone, but I think that was because I had to work so hard in the last ten minutes of running just to push through. I'm glad I did, though. It makes me feel accomplished. I noticed at the end of the run that the wrist band on my heart rate monitor was much tighter than usual and, judging from that, I imagine that's why my feet were part numb. I'm swollen somewhere past the size of Goodyear's blimp. More water to flush the salt out. Watch me float away...

W5 - 3.5, R10 - 4.7, W1 - 3.5, R10 - 4.7, W1 - 3.5, R10 - 4.5, W5 - 3.5, W5 - 3.0 = 48min/3.26m/1.5% inc