Sat. Nov. 21: Walk 1 mile.
Sun. Nov. 22: Walk 1 mile.
Mon. Nov. 23: Walk 1 mile.
On Thursday, Nov. 26, I am sure I will undo every good thing I've done in the last month by eating a Thanksgiving feast. C'est la vie.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
Beautiful Friday afternoon. Temperature in the mid-50s and mostly sunny--definitely un-November-like. I ran 1 mile outside, then went inside to do a mile on the bike in the weight room.
I ran the mile on the mile loop of our cross country course. Though I have walked and run this at least a hundred times in the last 5 years, I managed to find the one hole just big enough for my left ankle in the first 400 meters. That hurt. Thankfully, it wasn't twisted or sprained, and I was able to keep running after looking at the hole in amazement and wonder for a minute. Seriously--not only I, but also at least 200 runners in the last 5 years, at both the high school and middle school level, have run this part of the course. How do we miss this???
The bike is only moderately better than the treadmill. Certainly, it's a no-impact workout, but here I am again, staring in the mirror, huffing and puffing my way through a mile on the stationary bike, while that freshman over there does power cleans with my car. Or maybe just 160 pounds. Either way. At mile 0.08, the darn thing decides it's not going to work any more, it quits timing, quits measuring distance...after resetting the whole machine (only about 30 seconds, but stinking annoying) I finish the remaining 0.92 miles without trouble. However, about mile 0.26, I'm thinking, "I should have just stayed outside" and "It's really hot in here. It would be way better with some sun and a breeze." From 0.31 miles to 0.75 miles I wondered, "Can that heart rate really be right? How the heck does it work?" By performing some deft mid-ride experiments, I determined that it likely had to do with the metal on the handles below the seat. Good day, though. My ankle doesn't hurt at all, so I figure I'll be all right.
I ran the mile on the mile loop of our cross country course. Though I have walked and run this at least a hundred times in the last 5 years, I managed to find the one hole just big enough for my left ankle in the first 400 meters. That hurt. Thankfully, it wasn't twisted or sprained, and I was able to keep running after looking at the hole in amazement and wonder for a minute. Seriously--not only I, but also at least 200 runners in the last 5 years, at both the high school and middle school level, have run this part of the course. How do we miss this???
The bike is only moderately better than the treadmill. Certainly, it's a no-impact workout, but here I am again, staring in the mirror, huffing and puffing my way through a mile on the stationary bike, while that freshman over there does power cleans with my car. Or maybe just 160 pounds. Either way. At mile 0.08, the darn thing decides it's not going to work any more, it quits timing, quits measuring distance...after resetting the whole machine (only about 30 seconds, but stinking annoying) I finish the remaining 0.92 miles without trouble. However, about mile 0.26, I'm thinking, "I should have just stayed outside" and "It's really hot in here. It would be way better with some sun and a breeze." From 0.31 miles to 0.75 miles I wondered, "Can that heart rate really be right? How the heck does it work?" By performing some deft mid-ride experiments, I determined that it likely had to do with the metal on the handles below the seat. Good day, though. My ankle doesn't hurt at all, so I figure I'll be all right.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
November 19
After mistakenly telling a student she could make up a test today, I realized I had a meeting after school. So I go to this meeting (actually, it's training and information on using our new interactive whiteboards), which lasts until about 4:30. I've now been gone for a significant period of time today, but the wife says it's OK to stay and run. So I do.
OK, so November is generally disgusting weather, at least in Indiana. Most of the time it's anywhere from relatively cool to kind of cold, windy, ugly-looking (not too much sun, lots of gray clouds). Today was prototypical. I didn't have the heart (or, perhaps, the guts) to go outside, even though it really wasn't that bad. So I wimped out and ran on the treadmill.
I ran a mile at a 12:00 pace. Pretty slow, overall, but I'm really trying not to kill myself or my motivation by trying to go to fast too soon. Then I walked a 1/4-mile. Let me just say, though, that running on the treadmill is not totally awesome. First of all, it's like 70° inside, making it just a bit hot to run, what with no breeze. Second, all I have to look at is myself--useful if I really want to look at my form (I didn't want to today)--but otherwise incredibly boring. Rather than doing much thinking whilst running, I mostly found myself just shutting off my brain. I'd really rather do a little thinking. To be fair, at 1/4-mile, I caught myself thinking about the workouts one of the girls on my CC team is running right now, while at 0.51 miles I noticed that I only had 6 minutes left until the mile. At 0.75 miles I thought about Jeff Galloway's book (though I really don't remember any more than that). At 0.86 miles, I wondered about the grade adjustment function on the treadmill and pondered finishing uphill. Then I told myself not to be stupid. At 0.93 miles, I noticed the little blinking light had almost made it around the little circle on the display, while the big guy who had been lifting weights decided it was time to run, and I decided never to cross him.
Bottom line...I've got to stay off the treadmill as much as possible. Especially if I ever manage to run longer distances. I think I might die of boredom.
OK, so November is generally disgusting weather, at least in Indiana. Most of the time it's anywhere from relatively cool to kind of cold, windy, ugly-looking (not too much sun, lots of gray clouds). Today was prototypical. I didn't have the heart (or, perhaps, the guts) to go outside, even though it really wasn't that bad. So I wimped out and ran on the treadmill.
I ran a mile at a 12:00 pace. Pretty slow, overall, but I'm really trying not to kill myself or my motivation by trying to go to fast too soon. Then I walked a 1/4-mile. Let me just say, though, that running on the treadmill is not totally awesome. First of all, it's like 70° inside, making it just a bit hot to run, what with no breeze. Second, all I have to look at is myself--useful if I really want to look at my form (I didn't want to today)--but otherwise incredibly boring. Rather than doing much thinking whilst running, I mostly found myself just shutting off my brain. I'd really rather do a little thinking. To be fair, at 1/4-mile, I caught myself thinking about the workouts one of the girls on my CC team is running right now, while at 0.51 miles I noticed that I only had 6 minutes left until the mile. At 0.75 miles I thought about Jeff Galloway's book (though I really don't remember any more than that). At 0.86 miles, I wondered about the grade adjustment function on the treadmill and pondered finishing uphill. Then I told myself not to be stupid. At 0.93 miles, I noticed the little blinking light had almost made it around the little circle on the display, while the big guy who had been lifting weights decided it was time to run, and I decided never to cross him.
Bottom line...I've got to stay off the treadmill as much as possible. Especially if I ever manage to run longer distances. I think I might die of boredom.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Behind...
So I'm a little behind. I have no excuse other than laziness. Last Tuesday (November 10) I ran 1/2 mile and walked 1/2 mile, and rode a bike for 1 mile. It was cold, but not unbearable (really, it was just cool, but felt cold because it had been so warm recently). After riding the bike for a while (I cheated; I rode the stationary bike in the weight room), I ran into the middle school boys track coach and he and I talked track for quite a while. You have to be careful, because once you get me started, I have trouble stopping--but so does he, so it's just a good time!
Then I didn't run...
and I didn't run...
...
I didn't run again until Saturday, but it was beautiful on Saturday. We went to the park again and I ran a mile while my wife and daughter walked a mile (really, my daughter slept in the stroller for a mile). Then we walked a mile together. With about 200 to go in my running mile, I saw an old friend from high school (not too old yet, we graduated in 2001), but he didn't see me, so I kept on going. I figured I could stretch and then come back and talk to him, but he left before I finished stretching, so now I'm feeling guilty about it. If I didn't have a stroller with me, I could have just run across the rough (grass) and caught up; alas, such are the constraints of having a baby!
The run on Saturday felt really good, but I didn't time myself. I need to start doing that so that I know the pace I'm running. I'll try to post that information as well. Hopefully, I will be able to run tonight...if so, there will be more coming!
Then I didn't run...
and I didn't run...
...
I didn't run again until Saturday, but it was beautiful on Saturday. We went to the park again and I ran a mile while my wife and daughter walked a mile (really, my daughter slept in the stroller for a mile). Then we walked a mile together. With about 200 to go in my running mile, I saw an old friend from high school (not too old yet, we graduated in 2001), but he didn't see me, so I kept on going. I figured I could stretch and then come back and talk to him, but he left before I finished stretching, so now I'm feeling guilty about it. If I didn't have a stroller with me, I could have just run across the rough (grass) and caught up; alas, such are the constraints of having a baby!
The run on Saturday felt really good, but I didn't time myself. I need to start doing that so that I know the pace I'm running. I'll try to post that information as well. Hopefully, I will be able to run tonight...if so, there will be more coming!
Monday, November 9, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
The "failure" part
Yesterday was also wonderful weather. I think that November and October traded a couple of weeks of weather or something. That means that this week is perfect for getting out and going for a run. But I'm having to spend most of my time after school this week stuck in my room at school letting kids retake a test (it's a good learning experience for them). And yesterday, I had to take care of my daughter while my wife was visiting a friend. This is OK, as I would have been able to take my (5-month-old) daughter on a walk...except it was her nap time. So no walk time yesterday. This is the tradeoff for having such a wonderful baby girl...I love spending time with her. Sometimes I have to sacrifice something else for that. Maybe I'll be able to get out on Friday.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Day 1...sort of
Yesterday, the weather was awesome! 63 and sunny is not normal for November in Indiana, and I finally had some time to run a little. It's been a long time since I've run regularly (since I had to quit track in college because of my class load, which was about 6 years ago) despite the fact that I coach middle school cross country and track. You'd think that this would give me all kinds of chances to run, but really, I spend so much of my time instructing that I don't have any left for me..and this needs to change.
Part of the issue is that I've always had trouble running distance. I was a sprinter and a hurdler in both high school and college, and my one foray into cross country as a sophomore in college ended before it began with knee bursitis. My left knee still hurts sometimes when I run, further complicating matters. I'm a teacher and a coach, a husband and a parent, and I keep telling myself that there's no time to run, especially when the weather is terrible. But Monday it was beautiful and I took advantage.
I'm reading a book about running in the hopes that I will learn more about training for distance. I hope that this will help me as a runner and also as a coach of runners. The book is Galloway's Book on Running 2nd Edition. Something I've known for a while anyway is that it can help to keep a running log, and Galloway talks about that in his book. So as I was running/walking yesterday, I thought I'd give it a shot. I also thought that it might be interesting to keep that log as a blog...if you read this, maybe you can help hold me accountable to my running. You don't have to, you can just read what I have to say, or not...or read it and ignore it...or read it and use it for yourself...whatever. I will post goals, workouts, how I felt as I ran, what I thought of, what kept me going or what held me back...
So...
I could run 2 miles if I really wanted...but I don't--not yet. I think that knowledge has been holding me back, making me feel that I have to run 2 miles. I don't. So I'm going to try to relax my expectations and more fully enjoy each run.
Goal: Run/walk/workout 3 days per week, every week.
Goal: Run 2 miles without stopping, at an easy pace that actually makes the run feel easy.
Time frame: I'm not sure...so I'll start with this--3 months.
Monday's workout: 1 mile run + 1 mile walk, alternating approximately every 1/3 mile.
Part of the issue is that I've always had trouble running distance. I was a sprinter and a hurdler in both high school and college, and my one foray into cross country as a sophomore in college ended before it began with knee bursitis. My left knee still hurts sometimes when I run, further complicating matters. I'm a teacher and a coach, a husband and a parent, and I keep telling myself that there's no time to run, especially when the weather is terrible. But Monday it was beautiful and I took advantage.
I'm reading a book about running in the hopes that I will learn more about training for distance. I hope that this will help me as a runner and also as a coach of runners. The book is Galloway's Book on Running 2nd Edition. Something I've known for a while anyway is that it can help to keep a running log, and Galloway talks about that in his book. So as I was running/walking yesterday, I thought I'd give it a shot. I also thought that it might be interesting to keep that log as a blog...if you read this, maybe you can help hold me accountable to my running. You don't have to, you can just read what I have to say, or not...or read it and ignore it...or read it and use it for yourself...whatever. I will post goals, workouts, how I felt as I ran, what I thought of, what kept me going or what held me back...
So...
I could run 2 miles if I really wanted...but I don't--not yet. I think that knowledge has been holding me back, making me feel that I have to run 2 miles. I don't. So I'm going to try to relax my expectations and more fully enjoy each run.
Goal: Run/walk/workout 3 days per week, every week.
Goal: Run 2 miles without stopping, at an easy pace that actually makes the run feel easy.
Time frame: I'm not sure...so I'll start with this--3 months.
Monday's workout: 1 mile run + 1 mile walk, alternating approximately every 1/3 mile.
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