Lessons Learned: Training Weeks 1 & 2

I started off the first week of training well. I had two shorter runs that were great but then we all know how disastrously the last run I blogged about went.  Since that last run I haven’t stepped a foot into my sneakers! I’ve been traveling for work, preparing for vacation and am just plain exhausted! It’s a horrible excuse – “I’m too tired to exercise” – because as so many of us know, once you get out there and just start doing something, you find the energy you thought you were lacking.  But, I’m almost halfway through Training Week 3 and don’t have any miles to show for it.  Disappointing?  Yes!  But, vacation starts in two days and luckily I’ll be with my mom and sister, who are both great at running with me or encouraging me to run.  I’m hoping I’ll get some good workouts in each day, in between beach time and sleeping!

Here are some lessons I learned these past two weeks:

Lesson 1: The Olympics are a great motivator! Never in my life have I watched the track & field events with such interest.  Those runners are amazing!  Not only the sprinters, who seem to get all of the attention, but the distance runners.  It kept me motivated to get outside and run.

Lesson 2: Watching the Olympics does not make me a better runner.  I’d be so excited to run while watching the Olympics and then I’d get on the treadmill or out on the road and realize I am not an Olympic athlete!  Those people train hard and I am sure that their training does not include sitting on the couch, night after night, watching other people running, swimming, diving, or playing beach volleyball.  If only fitness worked through osmosis.

My new role model!!



Running is Hard!

Ok, that might be the most obvious title in the world. But, something interesting happened to me today. I started training for the ½ again this week and got two 30-minute runs done fairly easily on Tuesday and Thursday. I knew I needed to get a longer run in this weekend and this morning I woke up determined to do it today. The weather was a little cooler (93 degrees instead of 107) and I thought a late afternoon run would be no problem whatsoever. After all, I ran 9 miles just a few weeks ago. Six miles would be no sweat, right??

Boy was I wrong!  That was one of the hardest, least enjoyable runs I’ve ever had! At one point in time I walked for such a long time that I was able to text my blog buddy Dru to tell her what a horrible run I was having!  The highlight of my run was seeing a lizard (I’m not kidding)! So, what went wrong?

Timing: I usually do my long runs first thing in the morning. I’m not a morning person, so I’ve always thought this was a bad idea. Now I wonder if it makes it easier for me to get more miles done because I’m too sleepy to give it that much thought!

Training: Not only have I not run since the 15K, I haven’t done a lick of weight training or yoga. I’m a firm believer that both of those activities help me be a better runner. Clearly I’ve got to get those back into the training routine.

Desire: I was giving myself a hard time about walking so much, and kept trying to push myself to run through one more song, or one more block, but I just kept stopping and walking. I realized I just didn't care to run the whole thing. 

I find it really interesting that Dru and I have both had hard runs in the past few weeks. But, we’re still getting out there and pounding the pavement. So, for all of you out there who don’t think you can run a mile, 5 miles, or a half-marathon, please believe me – you can!  What was it that fancy shoe company used to say all the time? Oh yeah, just do it!

Time to Train - Again!

I’m ashamed to say it’s been three weeks since my last run and almost two months since my last blog post. My running/blogging partner Dru has been doing an amazing job lately at both, making me look like a giant slacker in the process! I’m so proud of her for continuing to run, especially through the heat and humidity we are all experiencing. I’m struggling to get back into my running shoes, so I’m looking to her for inspiration!  Here’s quick recap of the last two months:

I trained for and ran my fist 15K!  For those of you counting, that’s 9.3 miles. I thought it was just 9 miles and am so glad my mom told me about those extra .3 miles. If I hadn’t known I would have been pretty ticked off when I crossed mile 9 with no finish line!  Training for the 15K wasn’t that much fun, but I’m proud that I did it.  What’s the easiest way to stick to your training schedule? Tell every single person you see that you have to run the next day. Once you tell everyone, you sort of feel like you have to follow through. Or at least I did. Running the 15K was a lot of fun, surprisingly! The weather in Texas cooperated and wasn’t blazing hot. There were plenty of water/Gatorade stops along the way. The only bad part was that I dropped my phone and cracked the screen. Clearly I need to buy one of those little iPod shuffles to clip onto my shirt for the half. After the run, I rewarded myself with a super adorable, gold-striped phone case, so at least my phone looks good on the outside!

After the 15K I decided to take a 2-week break from running.  I’d been training for 2 months, so that is 2 full months of not sleeping in on the weekend.  I am a girl who loves her sleep. I could easily sleep 9 hours a night if my dog and work schedule allowed for it.  Sadly, neither does very frequently. So, I definitely appreciated having a few weekend mornings to devote to sleep.

Our half is just 11 weeks away (ok, just typing that scares me!!) so I’ve got to get my shoes out of the closet, set my alarm clock and start running again. I’m kind of excited about it...I actually find myself thinking about running a lot. Now I just need to do it!

It's all in a name...

Well, it’s official that I have (appropriately, I might add) changed my profile name to appear as dru “remind me why I’m doing this again” howard.  Now, it’s just a screen name, but to me “runs like the wind” was just not fitting.  In fact, in Salem this June, July, and August, I’m not sure I even remember what the wind feels like anymore, but I’m pretty sure if I did I wouldn’t be running like it. 

I could have changed it to “runs like the humidity” because I am familiar with that feeling lately and it’s slow, and sticky, and annoying, and well, you get the point.  But for now, I am what I am.

Shoe Update:

Shoes are working well.  My old blisters have healed (though I do have a new blister, however, I blame that on grabbing and wearing the wrong pair of socks the first day I ran in the new shoes) and my toes no longer hurt.  Time will tell if I can actually grow toenails back while wearing them, but for now, it appears as if they will not cause me to lose toenails even after my first long run in them this morning. 

Which brings me to the next topic – Today’s Long Run:

First, let me begin by saying that our 5am runs are really catching on.  There were actually 7, yes 7 of us running this morning and when we started there were only 3.  We are taking the streets of Salem by storm and I like it!  New runners and old runners and just socialization in general really do make running so much more fun. 

I blogged last week about how exhausted I was after my long run last Friday, but how I did it…yada, yada, yada.  Well, today was much different.  My run was mostly NOT enjoyable though I was never almost eaten alive by a vicious dog.  I did have to walk several intervals, and there were just so many challenges.  I told myself I would not dwell on it after this post, but I think it’s good to remind myself why I think I had this type of morning so I don’t do this again.

Here goes…things that, I believe, led to a crappy run (no pun intended…well, kind of intended).

1.    Extreme humidity at 5am. Bleh!

2.    Not eating – it turns out I ate my dinner at 4:30pm Thursday and then ate nothing else that night or this morning until after my run.

3.    Not consuming nearly enough water the day or hours before my run.  I ended up sitting in an unairconditioned barn for 4 hours the previous night, sweating excessively and not replenishing my fluids.

4.    Not enough sleep – got 5.5 hours compared to my usual 7-8 hours the night before.

5.    The annoyingly present and then all of a sudden super-urgent need to have a bathroom break (or code orange as we call it in the Salem Running Club) mid-run.  I would like to take the time to give a shout out to a.) Doug for spotting and securing the bathroom location and b.) the Hocker Oil/Gas+ attendant for letting me stop and use the facilities and then reminding me as I ran out the door that I had a LOT of people running around in circles waiting for me.

So, there you have it…the quick version of my frustrating run.

But there is always another day and I plan to run in the morning and attempt 8 miles next Friday so I will try to avoid setting myself up for what happened today.